The Monologue.

Dialogue in film isn’t always necessary. Bearing in mind it was extremely limited for the first 25 years of cinema’s existence and even today, there are so many ways to deliver moments, surprises, storylines and pathos. But so often, its the words spoken which can drive a story forward, can give a film its touch of “Art” and it’s the script which can deliver the knockout blow or a pertinent social commentary. Look at Tarantino’s wordiness, discourses on Madonna’s like a vigin or the intimacies of a foot massage. There are so many treasures in a Tarantino film... the script is just one of them.

But what about one persons speech. A grandstanding performance from an individual, or eminently quoteable lines from a short diatribe, the monologue gives actors the chance to shine and to hold the spotlight.

I looked through my list of films and drew out some of the great monologues that I found and wanted to give them context and my thoughts on them.

“Jaws” and the sinking of the Indianapolis. Possibly the most well known monologue in film. Robert Shaw tells the grim and painful story of impotence in the face of losing over 700 lives to natures most refined killing machine. The deep tones and claustrophobic surroundings just add to the delivery. It’s three and a half minutes which tells you so much about Quint and the fish they are hunting without any self reflection and not once do you forget that they too are on a floating vessel. The creaks of the boards and the gently swinging lamp overhead make sure of that.

Released in 1975, Shaw died just three years later  but over forty years after his demise, his speech lives on as one of cinemas greatest monologues. As good as it is though, for me it’s the last line that makes it for me..... the weariness in his voice, bordering on guilt, “Anyway. We delivered the bomb”.

“The Fugitive” Tommy Lee Jones kicks off the manhunt. .The man’s got charisma, that’s for sure and he sets the tone for the rest of the film in a punchy, frantic 30 second speech. Inspiring his troops like a manager in  stadium changing room, he tells them what they need to know and shows them he is not a man to be trifled with, he’s a man who knows what he is doing, what he wants and how he wants to get it. Harrison Ford may be the star of this 90’s actioner, but it’s Jones who gets the best lines. Little wonder he got an Oscar for this performance.

“Glengarry Glen Ross” Always Be Closing. It’s dramatic, it’s loud, it’s theatrical, but that could be because it started on the stage with David Mamet adapting his own play for the big screen. It’s in your face, boorish and personal. Alec Baldwin’s delivery makes you shift in your seat and feel as uncomfortable as those in the room with him, and it conjours up an instant dis-likeability for his character. But that doesn’t matter, because he doesn’t care. His arrogance oozes out in every word and in stark contrast to Tommy Lee Jones speech in the Fugitive, his threatening , vindictive narrative provokes the team into action rather than inspires.

“Reservoir Dogs”, Mr Orange. Tim Roth sallies forth with a long winded tale of one of those heart in the mouth moments which makes a man. Long winded it may be, but the way it is told, and cut, and edited makes it a masterclass in filmic storytelling... a story within a story and both of them delivered with spades. I sometimes wonder that Tarantino’s writing has never bettered Reservoir Dogs.........

“Silence of the Lambs” Lecter’s dressing down of Starling. Another Academy Award winning performance and another remarkable script delivering some unforgettable lines. Although this is not the most famous quote from the film, to me it is the most telling. He’s already inside Clarice’s mind and now quietly, viciously he provokes her. In inferior hands it would be the insults of the playground, but Lecter (and Hopkins) elevates it to deep psychological manipulation, one that Starling must harness lest it destroy her.

“Trainspotting”. Choose Life. A throbbing, thumping start to a film with Glaswegian cod philosophising. More of a sermon than a simple monologue, ultimately it was MacGregors punchy delivery that made it what it was, but once again, combining visuals, music, freeze frames and cross cutting made it great cinema.

There are many more, but those were my favourites, what are yours?

The Also Rans: “V for Vendetta”, “a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate” and the rest.........

“Seven”, “I'm setting the example. And what I've done is going to be puzzled over...and studied...and followed... forever.”

Insidious.

Having blogged elsewhere on the relativity of horror movies, I’m not scared by torture, or blood, or big fish or virulent bugs. I jump as much as the next man when a bathroom cabinet is shut and there’s a face behind the hero, but it doesn’t scare me. People being chased with chainsaws and machetes won’t generate feelings of sympathy and I don’t feel the urgency, driving them on to safety. With the remakes and sequels, the serial killers oversized creatures I don’t chew my nails or slide to the edge of the sofa with my hackles and hairs on my arms rising and I don’t suddenly realise that I’m holding my breath.

Not normally anyway.

With Insidious though I did. It may not be everyones “Fearful” cup of tea, but it certainly did it for me. Much like the Paranormal Activity films I could tell it was good with the tension squeezing saltwater out of my eyes but here, without the gimmick of VHS recordings and a relatively straight story it was even better than that. Ghostly/Demonic goings on in a family household is enough of a grounding, but the subtlety with which it draws down the sense of foreboding and dread is excellent. There is a point though, about ten minutes long when the activity switches to “The Other Side” and it’s here the film sags dramatically. My feeling is that the desperation felt by the viewer is down to the unsettling unreality experienced in a situation we can all recognise, whereas when the transition is made, a switch is made to the realms of fantasy and the fear is gone. I thought that was it and the film had lost me, but in an almost unique circumstance, I was drawn back in and the same chilling sensations returned with the characters on screen suffering that little bit more, but in the emotional sense rather than an actual blood letting.

Insidious gave me the willies. It creeped me out and at one point even had me gasp out loud in horror, not just shock. It made me tingle and fear what was about to appear on screen, and to me that is what a horror film should do.

Birdemic: Shock and Terror.

Merryn Smith has felt many emotions watching films over the years. But tonights stirred feelings within him that he's never felt before. Alien sensations, something primal and unpleasant. In terms of simple english, I feel violated by it. Never before have I been reduced to tears at the outright badness of what is on the screen in front of me. I feel hollow and weak. And I am not exaggerating.


Those are the words that sum up my feelings towards this film, but I must expand.

I’d like to say this film is awful beyond words, however the depths that this piece of digital trash plumbs, leaves it wide open to being ripped apart. But first a small disclaimer. One form of countering criticism could be levelled at me by saying “well YOU couldn’t do any better”. True. Very, very true. And that is why I work for a helicopter company. 

Bad acting has long been a hallmark of z grade movies but this film takes it to an extreme. Clunky dialogue and shocking scripts are poorly delivered with such straight faces , you can hardly believe that the actors on screen are taking it seriously

The director firmly believes that long lingering shots of car parks, seaside towns, cars driving and people walking down streets are tension  building whereas we, the average-Joe-public-in-the-street, would simply describe it as boring. And the editing is abysmal. Shocking to the point that in any individual scene, the sound levels are cross cut badly and background noise leaps from one level to another. There are breaks between scenes and continuity errors that have to be seen to be believed.

The poor graphics are forgivable in a megalowbudget film like this, but you just know that eagles and vultures cannot hover,  let alone at just a few feet off the ground with a wing beat of around 20 a minute. It looks like a computer game from the early eighties, just not as good and with birds parading across screen........and then back again, you can't help but think of Space Invaders

There are times in this when it honest to goodness makes no sense. Things happen. and that's it. People are dead, then they're not then they are. And I am fast running out of rhetoric. 

Suffice to say that there are no redeeming qualities to this film AT ALL. The truth is (and it is the truth) there were times in this film I wanted to cry, it was so bad.  I am just glad they didn’t spend more than $10,000 in making it.....................

..............................................

Bugger it, they made a sequel.

No, no, no,no, NO. I will not end this review with a joke, a pithy remark, a sly wink to the reader. This film quite simply doesn’t deserve that. It’s an affront to the art of film making, it’s a mess, unpleasant and physically painful to watch. Shocking and boring in equal measure, you truly cannot believe that  the events and actions you see, are actually unfolding on the screen in front of you.  It’s too easy to say that the film has no redeeming qualities, the reverse is true if that were possible. It is a black hole of a fim, a dementor of a film, sucking the life and all that is good from those that see it, leaving them despairing and pitiful. 

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes.

One day I will once again write a review of a film that I ddin’t enjoy, one that was rubbish, pointless and completely unmoving, but or now, I’ll just carry on with the ones that moved me and remoinded me what “Cinema” is all about.

 Off to a sedate and almost (oh so almost) slow start, ROTPOTA soon developed into a character drama, one in which you could see the heart rending denouement loomig large like an elephant in the corner and there is. Nothing. You. Can. Do. About it. Revealing whether your inner fears are realised or not is not a responsibility that I am going to shoulder, suffice to say the quality of the film as a whole compensates for any heart string tugging that goes on.

And the film itself is superb, though at times the pace varies dramatically the central premise though unbelievable, is acceptable and the sheer quality of the acting, drives everything forward, Franco is good, Cox is good, Felton is so subtle he is excellent and Andy Sirkis is simply outstanding, a class of his own, not necessarily above the rest, but simply staggering in his own right. Subtle nuances and inflections mean everything when you potray a character with limited communication (just ask John Hurt a la “Elephant Man”), but Sirkis seems to have that particular market sewn up.

 There is an element of sweeping flare with the direction on this film. It adds to the drama and the tension, but in no way takes your eye off the ball. Some recent releases have suffered with the amount of directorial panache they have injected, but here the balance is just right. With regard to the set pieces, you could tick them off as with any prequel/reboot/action flick, but here there is an edge, a frisson of originality throughout. The showdown on the Golden Gate bridge has been done a dozen times before but never like this, the escape from the compound is nothing new, but the build up is tremendous, and the heartbreak of letting go of the thing you love the most is possibly the oldest story of them all, but it’s never been told this way.

The final third of the film was nigh on perfect. There was a sense of humanity, with the apes displaying compassion, self sacrifice, bitterness and hate. An understanding of all things, an understanding, full stop. And prefacing it all, at the heart of the film is one of those moments for me which define cinema. Every now and then there is a scene which is breathtaking. You watch, you are engrossed, you are utterly absorbed, and then you realise you have stopped breathing. The scene sparks, and it illicits from you, a primal reaction, something you couldn’t stop if you wanted to, if your life depended on it, you react from your very core. And here we have one such screen. My immediate reaction was that I had just witnessed a turning point in cinema history, then I relaised that it was not that serious, just a turning point in actual history, in evolution. Then I realised that I was actually just watching a film but that in it a corner had been turned and a path followed that could never be retrodden. But for those few seconds, I was carried away I was in another  world and I was a witness. That is what cinema is all about.

Not without its faults, ROTPOTA is none the less great entertainment and one of the better Summer blockbusters of recent years. Original yet with a responsibility to what has gone before, the ending was such that it was a cracking stand alone movie,  an excellent precursor to those that had gone before it  or it had set the scene for future incarnations.

Ken Russels "The Devils" (partial spoilers)

Utterly remarkable film. There were times during it where I felt speechless, nay, breathless. Oliver Reed was outstanding, an awesome presence delivering a character who I felt at the start was to be the antihero of the piece, but who progressed to be enlarged by pathos and though thoroughly humbled by the end, his honesty as a human, honour as a man and integrity as an individual are completely and beautifully intact.
 Sexual repression in a Convent in 17th century France leads to mass hysteria and accusations of withcraft aimed at the towns elder, Father Grandier. An immoral man of the cloth who fears the repression of the state, yet finds love in the arms of a simple but honest young woman.
 It's a broken hearted story on many levels, but at its very core are just two or three scenes depicting his salvation through the soft eyes of Madeleine. These scenes, integral to the film could be separate and distinct in their own right.....a simple love story and beautifully portrayed.

 and yet the film is remembered for the controversy, the pain, the nudity and the blasphemy it portrays. Maybe that is what makes it such a powerful piece, the contrast between the tenderness and the brutality and vulgarity, and when things are powerful, people fear them. The orgy scenes are not titilating, the torture is the more vicious for the agony Reed delivers so well and the blasphemy is necessary.... as religion and its corruption are at the political heart of this film.

For me the only jarring note is just that, the soundtrack is difficult at times though may well conjour up the excess and decadence of 17th century France and some of the camera work may seem amateurish, but, clunky as it is, it does ad to the whirling fever of the film as a whole.

For me, cinema is about being moved, and falling in love with a performance is about as good as it gets. When a film can make you hold a hand to your mouth, sigh in despair and hold your breath in anticipation it has succeeded on the greatest of levels.

Utterly remarkable.

The Adjustment Bureau

I've got a feeling this could be a relatively short review, but nothing directly wrong with that, better than waffling on about nothing. As humans living on earth, we sometimes deviate from the "plan" that has been laid down for us and as such, beings from the "adjustment bureau" give us a nudge back on track. They may hide our car keys, or give us a flat tyre, ease the traffic or help us catch a lift, anything to get us back on the path. Matt Damon refuses to be nudged, in his pursuit of true love, in the form of a beautiful dancer, whatever the cost.
 It is almost a modern day fairy tale. Prince charming, searching for his Cinderella, cross that with a dash of futurism, mind wiping and real time freezing and your regular thriller chase through the streets or sewers of a major city and it all adds up to what we have here.......
 .....Which is entertaining enough, clever but not overly dramatic it was in no way a "Bad" film, but never really seemed to get off the ground, as it drew to it's inevitable conclusion, I got the impression it was very middle of the road, not a B movie as such, but no where near the quality of storytelling or production you would get in a mainstream success. It was almost as though it had just fallen short, but was too good to be a DTV.

RED.

Neither Fish Nor Fowl.
That's how I found this movie (and I can't bring myself to call it a film!!!!!) It's a flash actioner with what it sees as a wry sense of humour, but for me it just didn't work. Nowhere near funny enough to be a comedy, but had the sly winks to avoid the thriller category too. Much as I enjoy the leads in this movie (Malkovich and Mirren particularly), dare I say it, Knight And Day nailed it better with Tom Cruises million dollar smile and Diaz charming her way through. But we're not here for them. We are here at the behest of Robert Schwentke. The tried and tested director of such fare as "Flightplan", "The Time Travellers Wife" and......well, that's about it!

 It just seems so unoriginal, old agents, coming out of retirement when their lives come under threat. And I like my action flicks to have a bit of pzazz a bit of flair and other than the efforts of Karl Urban, Helen Mirren, Brian Cox and Big Boy Bruce, this flick had little to offer me. Even the shot *ahem* at pathos at the end fell flat!
 Think I would have rather watched Brian Cox's film from 2008 called "Red", maybe I will next time!