PAPILLON - ON THE IMPORTANCE OF NEVER LOSING HOPE... NO MATTER WHAT...

Love is a strange and many splendored thing. Sometimes it comes with a flash of light and a clap of thunder, engulfing us all in an instant. But sometimes it sneaks up on us quietly taking us over so gently we don’t even realise until we have been completely engulfed. This film crept up on me exactly in this way. I started off watching it almost out of a sense of duty – it’s a known classic and I felt as if I should have watched it by now – and for the first hour or so honestly wasn’t that hooked. I ended up deciding that my first tattoo will be the butterfly that gave the film it’s name – the butterfly tattooed on the main character’s chest. I have the pain threshold of a slug when it comes to needles (terrified doesn’t scratch the surface of how they make me feel as anyone who has tried to take blood from me can testify) so this is really something. Allow me to endeavour to explain how.

The film is based on the memoires of the same name of Henri “Papillon” Charriere,  a petty criminal native to France. Convicted (all his life he claimed wrongly) of killing a pimp, he is sent to the penal colony in French Guyana. This is a dismal place where the prisoners are treated little better than animals and the more unruly ones (like Charriere) are kept in solitary confinement for years ( that’s “years”, plural) so that they are “broken” (and often killed). Of course it’s completely possible to get yourself into trouble even in solitary confinement in which case you are deprived from light for up to six months… As you can imagine, Charriere is not an easy prisoner by a long shot. Two things keep him alive and (relatively) sane: his friend Dega who is a renowned forger and a man of means who can make *ehm* connections even in this most dismal of jails and his dogged obsession with escaping. The trouble is that this place is specifically designed so, as the guard so succinctly puts it, France can “wash her hands” of the men and dispose of them. For ever. It is going to take one hell of a lot more than determination for Papillon to escape…

You may have made the analogy already. And to tell the truth, yes,  in places the film has that distinct feel one gets from “escape from POW camps” type tales that were so popular around the time of the 2^nd World War. You know, completely disparate characters pulling together against a common brutal enemy and almost impossible odds. The fact that we have Steve McQueen (who was the lead in The Great Escape ten years before this film was made) in the title role does nothing to alleviate this analogy. Of course genre-wise, it’s your basic buddy-movie really. The strong decisive “masculine” one (Steve McQueen) and the more effeminate, “scaredy” one who “gets things done” aka Dustin Hoffman as Dega. Technically the film is brilliant in so many ways. One of my particular favourites was that beautiful if slightly jarring contrast between the paradise island of French Guyana and the brutality of the colony. And to me, to be absolutely honest, this film stuck out with its story, more than anything else…

First of all, a tiny bit of research straight away proved what I strongly suspected: it is widely presumed that the stories Charriere tells as his life story partly come from other prisoners. You could very well argue that the story is a bit like a swashbuckling pirate story. And I do not mean that in a disrespectful way. It’s just one of those things where when you look at the list of misfortunes that befalls the hero, it is almost numerically impossible for one single person to be THAT unfortunate. But then again, I don’t think the fact that it didn’t happen to a single person detracts from their force – considering they were probably true. I’m pretty sure 6 month blackouts happened as did solitary confinement for years on end along with God knows what else besides…  I mean these stories are unbelievable, but the truth often is stranger than fiction…

And secondly, just because an event is based on reality but doesn’t match up to it 100% must we, in every single case, wag our fingers and dismiss it because it’s not “telling the truth”? This is a story about the amazing capacity human beings have to find inner strength and keep up hope. And shall I tell you something else? I don’t even think it’s that important whether Papillon made it to freedom or not…  (SPOILER ALERT!) What matters is, when he is put on Devil’s Island – a minimum security branch of the colony where the prisoners are pretty much left to their own devices on a tiny island surrounded by shark- infested waters and nowhere to launch a boat from Papillon, who is now old and grey and not a little insane after 5 extra years in solitary confinement, STILL hasn’t given up. While Degas (who has somehow landed himself on the same island) is happy to settle in and concentrate on growing carrots, Papillon is still plotting… Now call it obsession or madness if you will, I think Papillon’s tireless bids for freedom speaks to something in all of us. You know. The part that secretly “knows” that one day you will be famous. You will be rich. You will have that red Ferrari. The entire world may be telling you that that plan, whatever it is, is very probably going to end in heartache. Outwardly you agree. Inwardly, there is a tiny voice inside insistently telling you to keep plugging at it. Papillon is the story of a man who never, never lost that voice. And I think this is a far more important message than any other the film may or could contain.

I mean, look at it this way. As I write this review, Holocaust Remembrance day is almost upon us. I just finished watching a documentary about British Holocaust Survivors. They site a lot of different “ingredients” for survival in those most horrific times, blind luck being one. But the second? Optimism. A sense of humour. And if that doesn’t tell you something about what it takes to survive in this world, I don’t know what will…   

WHERE'S JOE BUCK? - OR MIDNIGHT COWBOY FOR THE UNINITIATED...

“The only x-rated film to win an Oscar®!” this film proudly professes in its trailer. And it’s probably true… No original story about how I got round to this I’m afraid… I was rooting around, I watched the trailer and thought: “X-rated with Oscar®? Dustin Hoffman?? Hang about, I’ve heard of this one… Ok let’s watch this today then…” I still have the film’s main musical theme “Everybody’s talking at me” going around in my head, that song really speaks to my state of mind at the moment (at the moment I write this post, not necessarily the day I post it… Ok it speaks to my state of mind at the beginning of March 2011 =)). As for the film? I’ve been telling ALL my friends to watch it…
Meet Joe Buck (the Oscar® winning actor Jon Voight) unless you have already met him… He’s a Texan, fresh off the bus to New York and he’s “one hell of a stud!” He has a plan, as do a lot of people who arrive at the Big Apple with their eyes full of stars. He has heard that “rich broads” pay good money for sex in New York. Now, “loving” is just about all he has felt he has been any good for all his life, so here he is. Ready for “action”, and to get rich quick… However the big city ain’t what he thought it would be. Even asking directions is an issue, much less finding the kind of business he’s looking for… Fate has it he crosses paths with Enrico Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) who seems like the first friendly face Joe has seen in New York but who is in actual fact a crippled short-con artist who survives thanks to petty theft and similar antics in a condemned building with no electricity. Rizzo rips Joe off well and good but later takes pity on him… The two will become friends and Joe at least has a friend to rely on as he mulls over his surprisingly traumatic past and his worrying present state, as he tries to see what the future might hold for him…
I have, as I am sure you have as well, seen A LOT of films on human nature and human psychology… And there are a lot of films about the various fates of various country bumpkins who try to make it in the various big cities. But rarely, if ever, have I seen a film so touching and deep at the same time. Joe’s attitude in the big city, his early life and the way he has formed his rather strange opinions of himself and sex, the way he interacts with Rizzo (or Ratso as everyone including Joe calls him, much to his disgust) they are all actually part of a “growing up” movie. Heck, the things Joe goes through in his short time in New York and the blows “real life” deals him are a bigger de-flowering than any sexual encounter ever could be… This is actually a story of finding your way, finding out who you really are and what you really want in life. To do that, the only way of doing that in fact, is following your dreams. You may see your dreams come true… You may, on the other hand, find that the road you thought led to your dreams actually ends up somewhere completely different. Somewhere you never would have thought of at first, but now you’re here you’re actually happy. Happier than anything you could have dreamt up before your journey… And this is the kind of journey we should all attempt to make, in my humble opinion…

ANIMATED EXTRAVAGANZA 3 : DICK TRACY!

Ok, ok I know. Technically, this is NOT an animated film. But even if it’s not actually a cartoon, it was part of a cartoon strip. Heck, it was adapted from a cartoon strip! Come on be honest, anyone who was familiar with Dick Tracy before Warren Beatty brought him to life knew him in cartoon form. (I should have specified of course, out of the many incarnations of the cartoon detective, we are interested today in the 1990 incarnation vie Warren Beatty – another example of someone directing a film and playing the lead in it… However, since this is Dick Tracy we’re talking about, he naturally gets the limelight so there’s nothing much to complain about… Humph… ). And besides, have you actually seen the movie? Remember all the villains? Big Boy, Mumbles and the rest of the mob? They were all made up to look like cartoons for crying out loud, the films won an Oscar® for its’ art direction! By the way ,if you watch this one, please note how sometimes the shots of the town look like cutouts or drawings… The brightly colored costumes too… I loved it, LOVED it… But less of my rambling on and on, you want to hear about the film.
Dick Tracy… You all know him, out on the streets, fearlessly fighting the bad guys, saving the day, putting the mobsters in jail… Well, things turn a bit nasty for him when the notorious Big Boy Spaldoni (played by a very made up and superbly “over acting” Al Pacino) takes over the underworld making himself the boss of a very powerful, dark empire. He is preparing to hold the entire city to ransom and Tracy is the only one who can stop him! Tracy has problems however. His long term girl friend Tess Trueheart wants to settle down and for him to take a nice, safe desk job. There’s “the kid” a nameless orphan he has rescued from the street but who he can’t seem to get rid of. Then there’s a rather stunning gangster’s Moll (played by an equally stunning Madonna) who is desperately trying to get him… Not in the “gangster” sense though. Will Tracy save the day? Or has he finally met his match in Big Boy Spaldoni?
You can take this movie in a number of ways and one of them is almost definitely a spoof gangster film. I mean yes, it has all the classic marks of Dick Tracy, heck, Warren Beatty is a pretty good choice for Tracy; he even looks like him. But one can’t help seeing the irony in Al Pacino playing Big Boy Spaldoni. He splutters, he is bad tempered he is one of the funniest mafia bosses ever to hit the screen and all this portrayed by the guy who played Toni Montana and Michael Corleone… I roared with laughter. Dustin Hoffmann has a nice little part as Mumbles – caricature of another kind of gangster, you will see what I mean when you watch it. As for Madonna and the songs well… Combine her voice and the talent of the famous score writer Dany Elfman small wonder the film won the Oscar ® for best song… What else can I tell you? Good guys vs bad guys, car chases, beautiful dames, big guns… The 50’s, best of the 50’s… You will LOVE it…

YES, PEOPLE RANT ABOUT IT FOR A REASON! I GIVE YOU "RAIN MAN"

Now, come on you know this film… I mean, I was “re-visiting” the other day and it occurred to me; even if you don’t know the film you surely know its soundtrack… So many of the songs from the soundtrack are famous now in their own right and completely independent from the film! And I’m SURE you have all heard some variation of the phrase “Dustin Hoffman was BRILIIANT in Rain Man”. You may even be slightly jaded by the phrase – understandably. The fact that he actually won an Oscar ® for the performance however, should make y’all reconsider. A blast from the past (one doesn’t get more 80’s than 1988!) with multiple awards, world class acting, a VERY young Tom Cruise and a wonderfully touching story, what more do you want… I mean, really…
Charlie Babbit (Tom Cruise. He’s good in the film and a good actor but apart from Interview With A Vampire I somehow never warmed to him… He IS good looking but… I don’t know… Anyway, moving on…) is a car salesman. He is driven, egoistic and interested in no one and nothing except himself and his own well-being. Even his girlfriend is more of an ornament than a companion. His bugbear is his father, they never got on and they haven’t spoken for decades. Then, his father dies. And leaves his fortune to a mysterious “trustee”. After some digging Charlie finds out that he actually has a brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman). A brother he neither remembers meeting nor has heard of before. But the real sting as far is Charlie is concerned is the fact that his brother is actually a high-functioning autistic with no concept of or use for money… In desperation Charlie “kidnaps” his older brother and starts bargaining with the authorities. Half the money or they don’t get Raymond back. However, as the two brothers spend time together, Raymond, as maddening and unable to communicate as he may seem, starts “getting through” to Charlie… However, will this be enough to turn him into a “human being”?
You may think that the saga of the great capitalist who grows a heart and conscience has now grown rather old. But the thing you have to remember is that when Barry Levinson (director of Sleepers who also won an Oscar® for this film) shot it, the saga was still quite fresh. The “yuppies” had just been born and quite apart from a touching movie, there is criticisms of this err… Institution? You may say “Oh but that was in the 80’s”, well, yes, but are we so different from the yuppies now? Are we, in fact, still yuppies? Consumerism, capitalism they are both still going strong, it’s good to see “the other side” from time to time, even if Besides, forget about the rest, the film is WELL worth watching for Dustin Hoffman’s sake alone… No wonder his performance in this film keeps coming back to “haunt” us, it’s just such great acting, how can you not want to talk about it! And besides, shall I tell you something else? Charlie’s transformation (that’s hardly a spoiler come on now…), long lost brothers reuniting and a plethora of other subtle touches throughout the film simply tug at everything in us that cherishes soppiness… You’ll love it. And you’ll rant about it. Stop resisting and join the club =)

A CLASSIC YOU SIMPLY HAVE TO WATCH... "SLEEPERS"

I was in two minds about sharing this film on my blog. Not because I had any doubts of its quality – quite on the contrary, it’s a classic. The director Barry Levinson won an Oscar® for his other great classic “Rain Man” – that alone speaks for itself. Then there is the cast: Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffmann, Kevin Bacon, Minnie Driver and Justin Patrick. But the subject matter is slightly tough (to put it mildly) and then there is the small problem that anyone who is ANYONE has watched this… But then again I myself only got round to it later on in life and my mother got round to it later still so, well, maybe you haven’t seen it yet either. If you haven’t you most definitely should…
Ok, this is by all accounts a true story. It’s a story that starts in the 60’s in Hell’s Kitchen, New York. Lorenzo, Michael, John and Tommy are four friends who live in the area. While priests and gangsters duel it out to draw the inhabitants to their side, the boys have a happy, normal childhood, doing what boys to best – getting up to mischief. One fateful summer’s day, however, their prank goes a step too far, landing them in juvenile detention – Wilkenson Center for a year. It is an experience that will change their lives forever, for inside head guard Sean Nokes lies in wait, waiting to give them… Let’s just say a lot more punishment then anything anyone could deserve… The boys eventually get out of detention and swear never to talk about this again but then Mr Nokes crosses their paths again, this time quite by accident. Naturally, there is no way the boys can let him just “walk on by”…
Now, this film is undoubtedly very VERY tough viewing. My mother for instance, is particularly sensitive about violence towards children – she just can’t stand to watch that kind of thing… I was cautious as I told her she should watch it and she was duly shaken but didn’t regret it… But I mean, with some of the best acting talent of our time crammed into one film, how can you possibly regret it? The story, as I said, is claimed to be true. It is based on the memoirs of Lorenzo Caracatera – memoirs that have been strongly disputed by all the institutions cited in it who swear blind that the events are fictitious. I will not comment on this because I believe it has been the subject of lawsuits so I will leave “that jazz” to the courts.
However, I will say that it is a story that will shake you, disturb you but at the same time keep you glued to your seat. I will also say that cinematically, it is by far one of the greatest films of our generation. Levinson’s directing, Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro the two masters, a young Brad Pitt at the height of his talents, Kevin Bacon – who makes a SUPERB bad guy as Sean Nokes. Even Jason Patrick who seems to have faded off our radars these days. Just steel your stomach and watch the film - it will change you too…

KRAMER VS KRAMER

Yes, yes, I know, shocking. A disgrace. How can one possibly not have watched this… I, however, somehow managed and thus here you find me pounding away at my keyboard, in the attempt to share this films with other misfits like me or take the rest of you down memory lane… Now, I am aware of the fact that 1979 isn’t exactly an eon away but still… Check out Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman (CLICK)… My God… And while you’re at it – you remember (or if not you saw him on the dvd cover back then) that they play a couple who has a six year-old son, right? Look at him (Justin Henry) now! Haha, maybe it WAS an eon away after all… But I digress… The film was won five Oscars® and was nominated for a further 3 more (including the above-mentioned Justin Henry, quite an achievement for a six year-old I’d say!) and deserves a touch more respect.

Okey-dokey artichokey; so, Kramer vs Kramer is the story of a family – the Kramer family. Ted (Dusin Hoffman) works in advertising. He’s talented and ambitious which makes him good at his job but a far from ideal father and husband. It’s ok, he loves his family in his own way but the fact remains that he is… Absent. His wife Joanna (Meryl Streep) has become a homemaker after birth of their son Billy (Justin Henry). She is not particularly happy with her lot and Ted’s constant absence (physically and/or mentally) is not helping them solve the matter. Thus one day she just gets up and leaves – leaving her six-year old son in the care of his father. Ted is devastated by her absence and struggles to adapt to his new double-role – yet succeeds brilliantly. He is closer to his son than he has ever been, ok on the job side things slip occasionally but one has to have ones’ priorities… So all seems to be going well until Joanna shows up almost a year later… And demands to have her son back…

Now this, in my humble opinion, is a film that every cinephile should watch. It is without a doubt the first of a genre, the “granddaddy” of a lot of – if not all – modern family dramas. And when I say drama, don’t go thinking it’s a tear-jerker. I mean, you will get a bit moist round the eyes from time to time but it’s not unrealistic or overdone… It’s very realistic portrait of something that is considered commonplace back in the day – yet not so much so back in the day : Divorce. It’s effect on the children, on the couple… And also the heeling process and moving on – for everyone. And besides there are some scenes simply worth watching for the “aww” value – Justin Henry’s absolutely ADORABLE (shame he doesn’t seem have done any “substantial” acting since… As for Dustin Hoffman floundering to adapt to actually being there and looking after Billy will have all the ladies ROARING with laughter – and this is a tribute to Mr. Hoffmans’ considerable talents. He is SO natural… A warm and fuzzy classic with a rollercoaster of emotion. Now get out there and watch it.

HOOK

Are you one of those people who will “never grow up”? I most definitely am. Animations are one thing – they attract a different kind of crowd all together, but there are some children’s films that absolutely HAVE to be watched – and not necessarily when one is young either. Especially the great classics like Cinderella (I mean they even did a grown-up version of that with Drew Barrymore – remember “Ever After?”) or, in this instance Peter Pan. Now, Hook (THE FILM!) is NOT a “grown-up version of” Peter Pan. It’s a children’s film in all its glory but Dear God, what a children’s film… If you are like me determined to “never grow up” chances are you have already watched Hook numerous times. But then again maybe you missed it somehow. Maybe you were too old or too young… You definitely MUST catch up with it…

Well, Hook is not so much the classic story of Peter Pan, more the story of what happened after the story ends. As you recall, Wendy returns home, and Peter continues his life in Never Land, visiting her every year. But then, one year, there is a stranger lying in Wendy’s bed. It’s her daughter; she is just Peter’s age and really beautiful. Peter loves her at first sight and decides never to return to Never Land again… But now settled in the real world, reality takes a hold of him – he marries Wendy’s daughter Moira, gets a job, has two lovely children – a boy and a girl and… Completely forgets about Never Land… As far as he’s concerned he is an orphan found and raised by Grandma Wendy (the delightful Maggie Smith). He is a complete adult and he neither believes in magic or fairies… (he is superbly acted, incidentally by Robin Williams, an actor I greatly enjoyed “in his prime” but has now in my view almost completely slid off the radar…). Well, he may have forgotten about Never Land, but Never Land most definitely has NOT forgotten about him. Not least his dastardly rival Captain Hook. (And after watching Dustin Hoffmann’s stellar representation of Captain Hook, I have been unable to envision the pirate captain in any other way. I’m talking true pirates here people – I’m as big a fan of Johnny Depp as the next person (possibly bigger in fact) but Mr. Hoffmann says it all. Yes, ALL.) Seeing that Peter will not be back any time soon, the Captain ventures into the Real World, and sees what has happened. Being the most dastardly pirate that sailed the seven seas, he hatches a cunning plan to either force Peter to return to Never Land or hurt him beyond belief. He abducts his two children, aiming to turn them into pirates and turn them against there father, thus making him, Hook, invincible. Luckily Peter’s oldest ally and friend Tinkerbell (wait for it… Julia Roberts. Can you believe this cast??) is on hand to take Peter back (by force) to Never Land, much to the joy of the Lost Boys. Now all they must do is somehow remind Peter how to fight, fly, crow, use his imagination and live by the rules of Never Land, for this is the only way to defeat Hook. However, is Peter too far gone to be saved?...

I honestly cannot remember how many times I have watched Hook. It is such an absolutely wonderful story, acted out by absolutely superb actors. And the stars don’t finish there – Bob Hoskins is Smee, Captain Hook’s right hand man (no pun intended hehe) only I couldn’t insert him into the synopsis =). Don’t expect any Avatar type action – this was filmed in 1991 but go by Peter’s rules – use your imagination and you will begin to “see” the whole thing. And since it is not a “remake” of the story it will not spoil it for the little ones either, on the contrary, it’s what happens next, how the story really ends and that might be a life saver for some parents out there (I was very much a “what happened next” type child). This is a WONDERFULL story, an absolute classic and EVERYONE needs a bit of escapism from time to time… Come on, don’t be shy…