Alexander's doors of perception need expanding

ALEXANDER (2004)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

"Alexander" is a bloated, beautiful, muddled mess of an epic. There are images and performances of searing power, and there is just enough melodrama to make fans of lavish epics puke.

Blonde-haired Alexander the Great (Colin Farrell) was one of the greatest of all conquerors, a visionary whose initial principal focus was to conquer Persia. Yep, he conquers and fight the Persians in the battle of Gaugamela but his sights go elsewhere - he wants the entire Persian empire. He intends on conquering every land leading to India in a journey and several battles that end up dividing his troops and losing many lives for the sake of...well, nothing. Almost everyone turns against Alexander and conspire to kill him by poisoning him.

Alexander's father is the one-eyed Philip of Macedonia (Val Kilmer), a drunk who had strong aspirations to overtake the Persians but was also killed. Most of the blame is attributed to Alexander's seductive mother, Queen Olympias (Angelina Jolie), who has an affinity for snakes and claims Alexander's real father is Zeus (Huh?) It is clear from the start that Olympias hates Philip and wants Alexander to be king, but to what end? Political ambition or just pure hatred of Philip? Seems like those scenes were on the cutting room floor, like most of the movie.

Oliver Stone throws everything into this epic except the kitchen sink. There are battle scenes with war elephants tearing apart crowds of soldiers, hundreds of arrows fired into the air (a cliché by now), and an eagle eye's perspective of these widescreen battles. Some blood and gore here and there, though relatively restrained judging from the blood-soaked standards set by "Gladiator."

The performances run hot and cold. Angelina Jolie easily gives the best performance, reigning in her almost Transylvanian accent and her seductive presence ten fold (you almost expect her to bare fangs at some point). Colin Farrell screams and hollers, but he never truly inhabits the character. I hate to say it but Farrell humanizes the character so much that he comes off as more wimpy than a commanding, persuasive conqueror. Anthony Hopkins as the narrator Ptolemy seems ready to keel over, whereas Christopher Plummer handles his Aristotle role with exceptional clarity. Other actors such as Rosario Dawson, who is criminally wasted as Roxane, Alexander's Persian wife, and Jared Leto as Alexander's close friend, Hephaistion are thrust into the film's jumbled, flashback-driven narrative without much conviction or need. Vangelis's beautiful score alleviates some of the film's faults and lack of cohesion but not by much.

I appreciate what Oliver Stone has attempted here - an intellectual epic far removed from the cartoonish theatrics of "Gladiator" or "Troy." Some scenes are awesomely staged, but just as many are flat and monotonous. Stone hasn't placed much faith on the character of Alexander or his bisexuality - he is more spirited and engaged with Angelina's Olympias character than anyone else in the entire movie. Whether it was studio intervention or not, Stone doesn't make this the risky venture we expect from him, and that is a shame.

Triple Dog Dare you to laugh and cry

A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983)

A reminiscence by Jerry Saravia

 I first saw the late Bob Clark's "A Christmas Story" in theaters in late November 1983. I remember it was cold and snowing outside the theater in Queens, New York. I got excited about seeing the film from a clip I saw on the Siskel and Ebert show and thought I should check it out. I was entranced by the film from the first frame to last because it took me to a world that seemed so innocent, so sweet, so childlike and so warm and embracing. I had seen the film a few more times since, recalling how my high school peers commented on the leg lamp and laughed (the film got a new life after its debut on video and cable). But no one really discussed the sweetness and lightness of the film, the sureness in its mixture of laughs and memories of being a kid and wishing for the one truly remarkable Christmas gift.

 

The film is chock of full of memorable lines and evocative scenes - everyone knows what they are and it would be counterproductive to list them (you can't miss the film on Christmas since it runs for 24-hours on TBS). Most memorable to me would be seeing Darren McGavin's collected sigh and slight merriment at seeing his son, Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) get the gift he most craves, that darn Red Ryder BB gun. Or when Ralphie lets out that four-letter word (the Queen Mother of dirty words) he ain't supposed to utter - we have all been through that. Or Ralphie's hilarious daydream about receiving an A+++++ on his paper from his teacher Miss Shields (Tedde Moore). And I can't get over Scott Schwartz's Flick who gets his tongue stuck on an icy pole - it is at once funny, spirited in its crassness and realism, and emotional enough to make you cry at the same time. It is that kind of movie and one owes a huge debt to the late, remarkable Jean Shepherd, who not only voiced the narration of an older Ralphie but who also wrote the stories and co-wrote the screenplay. Melinda Dillon as the loving yet no-nonsense mother is just the icing on the cake.

What "A Christmas Story" does for me is it takes me back to an era almost alien to me and yet so familiar, and it reminds one of the jollies, the festiveness, the idiosyncrasies and the love of a family trying to celebrate a time of the year that brings everyone together. What is comforting about the film is that it assumes this family loves each other throughout the year, regardless of the foibles, the troubles with the Bumpusses and their numerous dogs, the unworkable furnace, Ralphie's young brother unable to eat his mashed potatoes, or Dad's delight in having a leg lamp seen by the whole neighborhood. The film works as a warm cup of hot chocolate served and layered with nostalgia, and cuts deeper with Ralphie's wild imaginations and some slightly mean, unsavory characters (like the store Santa or Zack Ward's sneaky and devilish Farkus) who are never depicted as too unlikable. The movie serves as a memory of a time long gone but it also reminds us to cherish the future as much as the past. So if you have Christmas dinner at a Chinese restaurant because Mom's turkey was ruined, not all is lost when it is a family that sticks together like glue. I don't know how else to put it except to say that "A Christmas Story" is not just a Christmas movie, it is Christmas.

The Brilliant and Unfinished works of Orson Welles

ORSON WELLES: THE ONE-MAN BAND (1995)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

There are directors who never get noticed, and there are those who have one major hit only to have a slew of flops follow them. Then there are directors who have one major masterpiece and a host of films that follow, never quite matching the brilliance of their initial masterwork. Orson Welles falls in this category, though I have found that "Touch of Evil," "The Trial" and "F For Fake" are brilliant films that arguably surpass his most famous film, "Citizen Kane." This wonderful documentary, "Orson Welles: The One-Man Band," traces Welles' last twenty years of his life where he desperately tried to find financing to complete his films only to be turned down again and again.

Most people think that there was not much to Welles beyond "Citizen Kane" and some other studio efforts, not to mention his slew of acting jobs left and right. After "Chimes at Midnight" and "F For Fake," it is assumed that Welles was a has-been who had acted in any and every film, narrating documentaries, and performing in wine commercials. He was a genius who was no longer the shining star of the past. This is, of course, not true at all. Welles was very busy and never got dismayed from lack of funds. He would finance some of his projects with money he obtained from acting. According to his partner and collaborator, Oja Kodar, Welles would travel everywhere with his 16mm camera and an editing table. He was filled with ideas and wanted to explore them all.

Some of his projects include the unfinished Hollywood satire, "The Other Side of the Wind," "The Merchant of Venice," "The Deep" and "The Dreamers." In some cases, the incomplete status of some of these films was a result of either poor business entanglements or financiers who feared Welles's lack of wanting to finish anything, thus based on his reputation. In the case of "Other Side of the Wind," a relative of the Shah of Iran helped to finance the project and then pulled out holding the footage of Welles's 3 hour opus hostage. "The Merchant of Venice" was to be made for television and the film was actually completed but the negative was stolen! "The Deep" is based on a novel by Charles Williams III, which later became the basis for "Dead Calm" starring Nicole Kidman. Film was almost completed until the main lead, Laurence Harvey, died. "The Dreamers" was a project that began in the early 1980's and was shot in his own L.A. home, but financing was harder to come by at that point. A "King Lear" project was planned but no one was interested.

Some other footage shown is interesting though whether the films themselves were ever completed remains a mystery. A short clip about tailors measuring Welles's girth is good for a few laughs. An even funnier clip is shown of Welles playing a lord of the manor interviewed by a bearded Welles! There is also a seven-minute long trailer for "F For Fake" that makes most trailers today look positively unimaginative in comparison. Powerful film fragments of Welles performing a one-man take of "Moby Dick" sans makeup or costuming show what a grand, majestic actor he was, and what an enthralling voice he had! There is also a clip from "Swinging London" which shows typical Welles impersonations of a Chinese ticket-taker, a housewife, a police inspector and a one-man band player.

Oja Kodar

Oja Kodar held all these fragments and incompleted films in a storage room until one day she decided to release them as part of this documentary. What we witness is a fallen giant who had gone from a Hollywood director to an independent film artist who never got the financing he so desired and deserved (his last Hollywood film as a director was 1958's "Touch of Evil"). Director Vassili Silovic, however, fails to make us understand why Welles had so much trouble. One possible reason is that Welles languished for an eternity making his films. According to author Joseph McBride's book on Welles, "The Other Side of the Wind" was a project that lasted from 1970 to 1976. In this film, there is a scene where Welles is interviewed by a college class. He tells them that his dormant project from the 50's, "Don Quixote," will be finished in his own time, just like an author works on an unfinished novel. But why was the negative of "Merchant of Venice" stolen? Did Welles perhaps forget to pay the lab bill, as did Ed Wood with "Bride of the Monster"? Or was he overextending his finances? And how does one explain "F For Fake" and "Filming Othello," both from the 70's and both of them completed?

The main treat of "Orson Welles: The One-Man Band" is watching what the master was up to in that 20-year stretch. Clips from "Other Side of the Wind" prove to be extraordinary and way ahead of its time. One scene shows John Huston as a film director greeted by the press and there are dozens of fast cuts and jump cuts from different angles that anticipate MTV by more than a decade! Another clip shown from "Wind" is a sex scene in a car with Oja Kodar that is as erotic as anything I've ever seen. Curiously, clips from "The Deep" are shown minus a soundtrack. We only hear Welles's booming voice explaining the action that is occurring on screen. There are also clips of his magic shows with the Muppets, his crowd-pleasing acceptance of his Lifetime Achievement Award from the very industry that shunned him, and so much more.

"One-Man Band" is plain evidence of a man who had unfulfilled his legacy of a legendary film director - for his detractors, this film will prove to be quite illuminating. It is sad and upsetting to watch what might have been. I heartily recommend Frank Brady's book, "Citizen Welles," which covers Welles's whole career, including his last few years where he could not get financial help from Steven Spielberg nor procure a Hollywood star like Jack Nicholson for his completed screenplay, "The Big Brass Ring." It will serve to amplify the sadness of a man who remained obsessive and forthright, determined to keep making films at any cost.

Lee slams Tarantino's 'Django'

Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino: A war with words

By Jerry Saravia

Filmmaker Spike Lee has done it again - he has attacked filmmaker Quentin Tarantino over his controversial new film, "Django Unchained," a "southern" (not a western) about slavery - a controversial subject that hardly elicits any cinematic interest in Hollywood. Lee has called out on the film and states the following: "I cant speak on it cause I'm not gonna see it," Lee said in an interview with VIBETV. "All I'm going to say is that it's disrespectful to my ancestors. That's just me...I'm not speaking on behalf of anybody else." On twitter he further stated "American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western.It Was A Holocaust.My Ancestors Are Slaves.Stolen From Africa.I Will Honor Them."

Lee had previously berated Tarantino for the 39 or more uses of that dreaded N-word in 1997's "Jackie Brown." Here is the interesting factor: back in 1996, I had the pleasure of attending a Spike Lee talk at Trenton State College (now renamed the College of New Jersey) and he mentioned Tarantino's brief role as a filmmaker in Lee's "Girl 6." Lee said that Quentin wanted to make the N-word a less potent word, a word that could be said without causing a riot. To sum up, Lee certified that after talking to the "Pulp Fiction" filmmaker, Tarantino would no longer be using that racial epithet in his films. Clearly Tarantino did not listen and the word was not only used repeatedly within the first half-hour of "Jackie Brown," it has apparently been used ad nauseam in "Django Unchained."

My issue with Spike Lee is that you can't call a movie disrespectful, regardless of subject matter, unless you have seen it. And you certainly can't call it a Sergio Leone version of slavery if you only heard about it through the critics. From the reviews I've read, it sounds like it has some rough and savage scenes of slaves beaten to a pulp, either by slave masters or fighting among themselves. Perhaps the issue Spike has is that a white Italian filmmaker is using slavery as a subject in revenge fantasy mode (just like Tarantino had in using Nazis for the revisionist "Inglorious Basterds"). Or maybe he wished a black filmmaker had taken charge of the material (Lee had expressed opposition to Steven Spielberg as the choice for adapting Alice Walker's "Color Purple," and had expressed dismay over Norman Jewison's name floating around to direct "Malcom X" which of course Lee directed instead). There is also a curious statement made by Lee to "Django" star Jamie Foxx that could be construed as a blessing for having worked on "Django" where Lee said, "It looks like y'all are getting it." (This is stated in the new issue of "Vibe" magaze with three of the film's stars on the front cover).

I can't say if Spike Lee would ever tackle slavery on screen but my gut feeling is no. I just think that such a film like "Django Unchained" would merit a viewing first before decrying it. It's not like we are talking about a new sequel to "Deuce Bigelow." For better or worse, a new Tarantino film demands our attention. If Lee used to watch the execrable "Temptation Island" on TV a few years back, I think he can make time for Tarantino's new film and then tell us what he really thinks.

Sean Penn is no monkey f*ck rat

SEAN PENN RANT ON HOLLYWOOD

By Jerry Saravia

Sean Penn, one of the finest actors of the last thirty years, has spoken out against his fellow thespians for indulging in commercial endorsements and agreeing to shoot films that he clearly believes are "below acceptable quality levels." Penn, in an interview with Esquire, stated: "I just did this picture that I enjoyed doing 'Gangster Squad' (where he plays Mickey Cohen). But I do think that in general the standard of aspiration is low," he told the magazine. "Very low. And mostly they're just doing a bunch of monkey-f*ck-rat movies, most actors and actresses. And I blame them just as much as I do the business. I know everybody wants to make some money, everybody's got a modelling contract, everybody's selling jewellery and perfume."

Hmmm, whoever could he mean? Brad Pitt posing for Chanel No. 5 in one of the oddest (though not as confounding as people pretend) commercials I've ever seen? Or how about respected actors like Mark Ruffalo appearing in movies like "The Avengers" or "Shutter Island"? Robert Downey, Jr. in the "Iron Man" trilogy or the "Sherlock Holmes" movies? Nicolas Cage who appears in more tripe (albeit watchable tripe because of Cage's presence) than anyone else of Penn's generation? (Cage has been the target of ridicule in Penn's radar before). Would Penn dare to offend his one-time costar, Robert De Niro, who has appeared in the Fockers trilogy? Did I just say "trilogy"?

Sean Penn has appeared in three of my favorite films of the last thirty years: the exquisitely thrilling and sweat-inducing "The Falcon and the Snowman"; the highly intense "Mystic River"; and the beautifully understated and powerful "Milk." He has also done a fine job directing films like "The Indian Runner," "The Crossing Guard" and the highly underrated "The Pledge." What he has not done is star in the commercially-oriented tentpole superhero movies or sci-fi or fantasy films. It is not his thing to do a straight, cookie-cutter, formulaic entertainment for the masses. Penn once said on a televised Actor's Studio special that if people want entertainment, they can get a couple of hookers and an 8-ball. Film, as he had stated, was too powerful a medium to be just entertainment. In the Esquire interview, Penn went on to state the following: "When I was growing up and somebody like Robert De Niro had a movie come out, it was a cultural event," he said. "Because he had such a confidence and a single mission that was so intimate. But when people start using themselves as instruments of a kind of consumerist mosh pit, they're helping that take over. I mean, you are a soldier for it or you're a soldier against it."

I do not disagree with Sean Penn but the reason that American cinema has changed or been shortchanged in favor of blockbuster Hollywood epic pictures is because the audiences respond to it - they want it. The world is going through so many seismic changes in population, economy, job losses, environment, wars, incessant pool of politicking, school shootings, massacres and exorbitant health care costs that the audience needs a reprieve, an escape. The 2010 audience wants what the 1940's generation post-Pearl Harbor wanted - pure entertainment with nothing to think about except to escape from harsh reality. For example, in 1941, as an escape from the Pearl Harbor attack, audiences flocked to Universal's "The Wolf Man." Today, superhero movies, fantasy epics based on Tolkien, vampires, horror remakes and such dominate the cinema screens and sell tickets. Some are fairly good, and others are pure garbage. The independent films are still out there but they are not guaranteed to rake in the big bucks and do not have budgets in the triple million figures or play in thousands of screens, nor are they meant to. The demographic for most big-budgeted pictures is everyone - it must appeal to all. However, not all films can appeal to everyone. But if you love cinema, you can love "The Avengers" and "Milk." Neither should be mutually exclusive but they are.

Wenders' Brave New World

UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD (1991)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Originally viewed in 1992)

Wim Wenders' "Until the End of the World" is a fascinating, fractured, disconnected mess of a movie. Watching it recently for the second time, I found it less enthralling than I had initially. It is like watching a trailer for a film that is not quite complete.

It is the year 1999 and an Indian nuclear satellite has spun out of control causing great alarm around the world. Claire Tourneur (Solveig Dommartin), an adventurous partygoer, could care less about a potential nuclear crisis. She loves to sleep endlessly and listen to rock and roll music, especially Elvis's "Summer Kisses, Winter Tears" (also sung in the film by David Lynch regular Julee Cruise). While traveling back home, Claire finds herself iadvertently involved with two bank robbers, a traveler wearing a fedora hat named Trevor Mcphee (William Hurt) who is being hunted by the government, a bounty hunter, and so on. This all takes them to a spiritual habitat in the Australian Outback where Farber's father, a crotchety scientist (Max Von Sydow), lives with his blind wife (Jeanne Moreau).

I do not wish to reveal much more of the film except to say that the first half is brilliant moviemaking, exploring a world inhabited by videophones, digital video cameras, headsets that can record images, tracking devices, all fashioned in an almost noirish, Godardian landscape (in fact, both Dommartin and Hurt seem to be doing variations on the characters in Godard's "Breathless" and "Pierrot le Fou.") Most of what the film shows has become a reality today in the year 2000, though videophones never took off. The ability to trace anyone anywhere is also a real possibility, even on the Internet.

Once the characters settle in Australia, the film loses its urgency and potency. Basically, we are left with endless shots of people strapped to chairs while enduring dream hypnosis and other sleep-inducing phenomena so that a new kind of camera can record and visualize people's dreams. The characters in this section of the film become less interesting as well. Why the hell does Claire follow the listless Farber all around the world? Does she truly love him or does she want the money he stole from her? I think it may have been a mistake to show a femme fatale with a compassionate, sweet aura - the transition is simply not there and thus not believable. Dommartin seems to be playing the same angelic, melancholy character she played in Wenders' "Wings of Desire." Characters such as the devious bounty hunter, the sloppy government agent, the whimsical bank robbers, and Claire's boring boyfriend, an author (Sam Neill, who also narrates the film), all become ciphers literally kept in the background.

Every sequence set in Australia feels disconnected and rushed, though the soundtrack and the sight of seeing the towering presences of Max Von Sydow and Jeanne Moreau keeps one glued as to what happens next. It all sort of feels choppy and not edited with smooth transitions from one scene to the next. The reason may be that Wim Wenders initially had a longer cut, reportedly five hours long and shown briefly at a university in 1996. I wait for the day when this cut becomes available and shown in cinema screens. Heck, if they did it for "Das Boot" and "The Last Emperor," they can do it for Wenders' film.

Despite the flaws and narrative inconsistencies, "Until the End of the World" is brave, original, risky, full of ambitious ideas, and often a sight to behold (including the innovative use, at the time, of high-definition television). It is often compelling and moving enough to make one wish it were better. I am sure the longer, director's cut is the great film that this truncated version aspires to be.

Give me back my wife!

 FRANTIC (1988)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Viewed back in theaters in 1988)

Despite its stirring title, "Frantic" is not a highly tense thriller with high-tech thrills every second. This is an absorbing, slower-paced thriller where the thrills come out of the situations rather than replacing them. Released back in 1988, it was also evidence that Roman Polanski was back at his claustrophobic best.

Harrison Ford plays Dr. Richard Walker who is in Paris for a medical convention with his wife, Sondra (Betty Buckley) - they are in the city where they spent their honeymoon. Richard and Walker stay at a luxurious hotel. They plan a romantic time together. Problems arise when Sondra discovers she picked up the wrong suitcase at the airport. While Richard takes a shower, Sondra disappears. Nobody has seen her except the hotel clerk who claims she left with a Middle-Eastern gentleman. This leads Richard to the underworld of Paris which includes gangsters, drug dealers, drug couriers, nightclubs, murder and a nuclear device! Of course, Richard could care less about any of this - he just wants his wife back. His guide through this mess is a leather-jacketed drug courier named Michelle (Emanuelle Seigner) who loves the music of Grace Jones. Walker prefers old music. Nevertheless, they develop a mutual need to help each other though one feels that Michelle is only interested in her fee of 10,000 francs for the missing suitcase.

"Frantic" develops slowly with a sure hand in every scene. Polanski tightens the suspense wires ever so delicately and he gets enormous help from Harrison Ford. Ford is in every scene and gives us a character we can identify with, the Everyman in a world he can't understand or has refused to acknowledge. Just because he is an apolitical American doctor doesn't mean he can find his wife with the dubious help of the police and the French Embassy. The frantic, unpredictable search is due to Polanski and Gerald Brach's devious screenplay which plays tricks with the audience - they do not give away too much so that we only know as much as Ford does from moment to moment. But Polanski shares a trait with another Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, in his ability to concentrate on characters and their motivations regardless of the plot. The nuclear device is the MacGuffin of the plot, which means it is the object the characters are interested in yet the audience could care less about.

"Frantic" is an unusual kind of thriller. It is chock full of suspense, it has some slapstick, plenty of black humor and the typical Polanski changes in his characters who are slowly coming apart. Consider the sequence where Ford's Walker arrives sans shoes at the hotel. Also consider a later scene where Richard and embassy officials are sprayed with some mace by Michelle, resulting in a comical sequence that Charlie Chaplin would have been proud of. The briefly suspenseful sequences of seeing Richard walking on the Paris rooftops reminds one of Hitch's "To Catch A Thief" but it also works because we care what happens to Richard Walker. Ford has no bullwhip or revolver this time, just his smarts and his bewilderment knowing his own life could be in danger.

"Frantic" is not a great Polanski film but it is a great example of how to make a thriller. Polanski's European feel for Paris and for its surroundings exude the kind of claustrophobia you can only feel in the hands of a real master. And Ford proves once again he is not just an action star.