AFI/BFI #206: Pulp Fiction (1994)

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary
Composer: Various Artists
AFI Rank:  95 (1998), 94 (2007)
BFI Rank: -


      94%
     

I remember buying the Pulp Fiction soundtrack and practically wearing it out, waiting for the film to finally hit rental so that I could watch it again. And I did, many many times. I had Jules' monologue memorized. I thought Tarantino was a genius. Hard to believe that was 17 years ago. The last time I watched Pulp Fiction was probably on Laserdisk in the late nineties. As I put in the disk to watch it for the first time in a decade I wondered to myself why I hadn't watched it more. Maybe it would be like the other things I loved back then, like the dueling guitar driven rush of Iron Maiden. Maybe I had outgrown it or didn't have the energy to enjoy it anymore. Some people call it maturing tastes but when it comes to music and film I am not sure it is as simple as that.

From the moment Honey Bunny climbed on the table and the first glorious twangs of Dick Dale's Misirlou blasted out the speakers I was transfixed. I can honestly say I enjoyed it even more than when I first saw it in 1994. Not only has it aged well but it has somehow gotten even better. I felt like an idiot for not watching it again sooner.

Tarantino brought virtually the whole crew from Reservoir Dogs onto Pulp Fiction. If Pulp changed the face of independent cinema then Dogs definitely set the stage. For me they form a trifecta with Inglorious Bastards as Quentin's greatest work. He is often attacked for being derivative and simply borrowing from years of popular, and more often less than popular, culture. I prefer to see it as cultural archaeology, bringing lost treasures back for a new generation. And he does it so very well. In the case of Pulp Fiction though he cannot take all the credit. Roger Avary was talked out of a co-writing credit and contributed significantly to the story. Quentin may be known for his dialogue but what lifts Pulp Fiction above his other films is the intertwining plots and exceptional story telling.

Pulp Fiction's place in popular culture is secured

The performances are as iconic as the set scenes. It was a shot of adrenalin straight to the heart for Travolta's career bringing it back from the brink of death and put Thurman, Jackson, Roth and Rhames on the A-list. It was a risk for Bruce Willis who was still a big star but had made some seriously bad diversions in the last few years. It not only put his career back on track but showed he was a much more capable actor than many had realized. Outstanding cameos by Christopher Walken and Harvey Keitel threaten to steal the whole show. 

The critics may have been split on Pulp Fiction but the awards committees were unusually quick in recognizing what they had on their hands. Pulp Fiction garnered seven oscar nominations and was either nominated or took home awards from every major organization including the Palme d'Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.

I had wanted to see it in HD on Blu Ray and was amazed to find it has not yet been released outside of Hong Kong, France, Denmark and Poland?!? Unbelievable for a movie of this caliber. I didn't order one of the imports and instead settled for the DVD. A perfectly fine transfer but the Blu ray is now at the top of my wish list. Rumours of a release later this year in the US and UK.

One of the goals of Crucial Cinema is to convince you to watch movies that you have never seen but in the case of Pulp Fiction I would be surprised if there are many of you out there other than recently awakened coma patients, nuns and children. But if like me you haven't seen it in over a decade then I strongly recommend a repeat viewing. Unquestionably Crucial Cinema for decades to come.

        

AFI/BFI #207: Life Is Sweet (1990)

Director: Mike Leigh
Writer: Mike Leigh
Composer: David Snell
AFI Rank:  -
BFI Rank: 95


      100%
   

"Given the choice of Hollywood or poking steel pins in my eyes, I'd prefer steel pins." - Mike Leigh

You could argue that you cannot get more english than a Mike Leigh film. He occupies only two spots on the BFI top 100 but then again he has hardly been a prolific film director (if you ignore all his theater work). But what he lacks in quantity he has made up for in quality. He doesn't develop properties, or even work from a script. He creates real living breathing worlds occupied by truly believable people. He does it by using incredibly talented and often overlooked actors and giving them the space and freedom to create something special. Hi style is epitomized in the funny and sublime Life Is Sweet.

Leigh knows how to assemble a cast and oh man what a cast. The loving couple played by Alison Steadman and Jim Broadbent with Claire Skinner and Jane Horrocks cast perfectly as very believable sisters. Stephen Rea as the shifty Patsy, a man you wouldn't trust as far as you can throw him. A young David Thewlis makes a cameo. But the stand out performance is from Timothy Spall who creates a character so memorable he should have gotten his own film. Who wouldn't want to try Saveloy on a bed of Lychees or Tongues in a Rhubarb Hollandaise?

Outstanding performances from Timothy Spall and Jane Horrocks

By now you must know I hate spoilers and this film is especially hard to describe without giving anything away. So simply take my word for it. This is truly Crucial Cinema and worth every moment of your time. 

Your biggest challenge, if you are in the US, will be getting your hands on a copy. There is no US DVD release and no streaming version available. Amazon does now have a burned on demand DVD-R for $20. I watched the UK DVD ordered from Amazon UK and shipped to the US. The transfer is surprisingly good and your best bet as there is no street date for a blu ray release.

     

AFI/BFI #208: The Last Picture Show (1971)

Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Writer: Larry McMurty, Peter Bogdanovich
Composer: Various Artists
AFI Rank:  - (1998) 95 (2007)
BFI Rank: -


      100%
     

Imagine if Orson Welles had made Porky's and you have an idea of what The Last Picture Show is going to deliver. There is undoubtably a touch of Welles in The Last Picture Show. There are a couple of scenes where you feel it more than others, especially a beautiful slow zoom low angle shot in the cafe capturing all the peeling and decay that the whole town is undergoing. Cinematographer Robert Surtees started out in hollywood as an assistance to Gregg Toland. Surtees incredible body of work speaks for itself: Ben Hur, The Graduate, the Sting, Oklahoma!, Lost Horizon, Mutiny on the Bounty, the list goes on. Peter Bogdanovich was a film journalist turned director and had developed a close relationship with Orson Welles. The use of black and white not only helps with the stuck in time feeling of Anarene but also avoids the need to try and capture that uniformly and convincingly in color, something Bogdanovich had struggled with. Both Surtees and Bogdanovich received oscar nominations.

Bogdanovich cast the 19 year old unknown and model Cybil Shepherd and was so enamored with her that they had an affair and Peter eventually divorced his long time wife and set designer on the film Polly Platt. His ill advised use of Cybil in three more projects virtually destroyed her career and made them the laughing stock of hollywood. It was only her move to TV that would revive her flagging career. Randy Quaid and Timothy Bottoms both had their debuts here too and while Jeff Bridges had already made a name for himself on TV this was effectively his first major picture. Add to this a seasoned and stellar cast including Ellen Burstyn, Eileen Brennan, Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson it is no wonder it is the only film to date to be nominated for four acting Oscars exclusively for supporting performances. Leachman and Johnson both took home best actor oscars for their performances. Johnson's monologue at the fishing hole is a truly standout scene and it is ironic that Johnson turned down the part of Sam several times as it was "too wordy".

1972 was a tough year at the oscars and the competition was strong. The French Connection took best picture over The Last Picture Show and A Clockwork Orange. It is hard to imagine two more different but related movies than The Last Picture Show and Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange and even harder to imagine them as contemporaries. That year also saw Fiddler on the Roof, Klute, McCabe & Mrs Miller, The Go-Between (a BFI top 100 film), Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, The Andromeda Strain, Shaft, Straw Dogs and Diamonds Are Forever. An eclectic bag and a fitting start to the decade.

A stand out low angle shot in an otherwise eye level picture

The pace of The Last Picture Show is fittingly slow and at times painfully so. Although the dialogue is first class it is the cinematography that demands your attention. This is not a movie to watch while you are playing angry birds on your iPad or farming on your laptop. It requires a respectful viewing to fully appreciate and I actually watched it twice myself in the space of two days, having seen it for the first time only a year or so ago. 

The soundtrack is all contemporary music, always in the background, playing on radios or tv.   It adds a difficult to achieve realism to the scenes it accompanies and a palpable silence to does it doesn't. It is as much as part of the film as any one of the actors.

Without giving too much away the title refers to the closing of the movie house and the film captures the slow death of a small american town through the eyes of its youngest inhabitants. It is a transitional point for the town and the kids and is a heart a coming of age story. It is television that is blamed for bringing this decline on. People stay at home, they don't go out anymore, and the businesses suffer as a result. There was a sequel Texasville in 1990 and rumors of a third installment in the next year or so. Maybe we can bring the story right up to the modern day with rampant consumerism and mindless reality television. Todays equivalent decay and decline.

I watched the 1991 Directors Cut on DVD which adds back 8 minutes of footage and treats us to a beautiful transfer. The blu ray is only available as part of the criterion box set America Lost and Found: The BBS Story and by all accounts is a great transfer. If you have never seen it then the box set is great value and also includes The Monkees Head, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and a couple of more forgettable films.

The Last Picture Show is unquestionably crucial cinema and if you haven't seen it then make sure you carve out enough quality time to fully take in all it has to offer, sit back and travel to Anarene, Texas 1951 and a small towns last hurrah.

        

AFI/BFI #209: Do The Right Thing (1989)

Director: Spike Lee
Writer: Spike Lee

AFI Rank:  - (1998) 96 (2007)
BFI Rank: -


      96%
     

In terms of critical acclaim it is hard to argue with the facts. As well as occupying position 96 on the AFI Top 100 10th Anniversary list, it holds places on Variety's 50 best of all time, Entertainment Weekly's 100 Greatest Movies Of All Time, Film Four's 100 Greatest Films Of All Time, The National Society Of Film Critics 100 Essential Films, Empire's 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time and the list goes on. Siskel and Ebert ranked it as one of the top 10 films of the decade. The US Library of Congress even chose it for preservation in the National Film Registry. You might be surprised then to learn that I didn't particularly enjoy it.

Do The Right Thing is unquestionably an important movie. It delivers its message unbelievably well, a difficult thing to do if you consider not only the subject but the time it was made. For that alone it deserves the acclaim. The writing and reciting by Lee are both superb. The cast stellar (John Turturro, Danny Aiello and Ossie Davis especially). Similar to many british movies on the BFI list, it is culturally and historically significant. It perfectly captures not only a time and place but also the emotions and sentiments. Don't get me wrong. This is not uncomfortable to watch like many other movies of this genre. As a viewer I just felt like I was along for the ride and never truly got pulled in by the characters or the story. Many of the most interesting characters are played by veteran actors and that may point to my problem with the film. Many of the fresh young actors would go on to do incredible things but here it feels like they are just warming up. For me at least it was enough to keep me from getting completely engaged.

I watched both the DVD and also parts of the Netflix HD stream. The DVD retains the overly saturated and yellow tinged cinematography of the original film which adds to the sense of oppressive heat. The Blu ray has apparently lost this in favor of crisp lifelike color and the Netflix stream did seem a little less yellow to me. Take your pick.

Should you see it? Absolutely. There is a key question posed that is central to the film and, without spoiling the plot, is incredibly powerful. It will linger with you for a while. Certainly less than it would have 20 years ago, but critical all the same. For me personally I think that with repeated viewing I might come to love this movie, not having gone in with any nostalgic memories of seeing it in the nineties.

        

AFI/BFI #210: The Wicker Man (1973)

Director: Robin Hardy
Writer: Anthony Shaffer, Christopher Lee, David Pinner
Composer: Gary Carpenter. Paul Giovanni, Magnet
AFI Rank:  -
BFI Rank: 96


      89%
     

By the early seventies Christopher Lee had made a name for himself as a horror actor and a Hammer regular. Looking to expand beyond this Lee worked with Anthony Shaffer (Frenzy, Sleuth, Death On The Nile) on an adaptation of David Pinner's novel Ritual, very little of which made it into the final screenplay. The result is one of the greatest british films ever made and Christopher Lee's personal favorite. He even worked without pay to help get it made. I hesitate to call it a horror movie as at times it is more thriller than traditional horror. However you classify it there are moments of real terror even today. As with many great films it was not recognized as such till much later. At the time it was cut to shreds and played as the B movie for Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Know. I won't go into all the details of the various versions of this film, there is plenty of that out there. They key thing is that you need to get your hands on the Extended or Director's editions which are 96 minutes long versus the originally butchered 88 minutes. That may seem like a small difference, and it is in terms of time, but the shorter version is also reordered and the combination has a dramatic effect on the films narrative and impact.

The film was directed by Robin Hardy who had previously made US and Canadian television dramas for such companies as the Esso World Theatre and had returned to London in the sixties to make commercials and informational films for the Hardy Shaffer Ferguson Avery company. It was this partnership with Anthony Shaffer that brought him onto The Wicker Man along with Lee. It was his first and best feature film and he made only a handful afterwards, focusing mostly on his writing. He has long planned to make a sequel/prequel/related film with Lee based on his novel Cowboys For Christ and it may see the light of day in the coming year. He even makes a brief cameo in The Wicker Man as the minister.

Stranger in a strange land, Sergeant Howie (Woodward)

Edward Woodward is pitch perfect as Sergeant Howie and we can be thankful that both Michael York and David Hemmings were not cast. Apparently Woodward was always the producer's and writer's first choice.

In terms of awards there is very little to talk about as you would expect. Just four nominations and one win from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films in 1979. It's critical acclaim would come later as it started to show up regularly on best picture and top 100 film lists. It sits at 96 on the BFI list.

I was lucky enough to catch the longer version in HD on cable. There is no Blu ray as of yet. It looked superb and if you can catch it this way I highly recommend it until the Blu ray is out. The shorter version is by no means awful if that is all you can track down.

I won't go into the plot. As you should know by now I think the only way to see a film is when you know nothing about it. The point of reviews and trailers are to convince you it is worth seeing and won't be a waste of your precious time. Let me save you that. The Wicker Man is unquestionably Crucial Cinema.