Blah, blah, blah, same rules as always, four films that mean something to me. One is a miscellaneous cult type movie, one is black and white, one is foreign language and one is from the past ten years.
No whacky, lame intro this week because I just want to dive in and talk about my favourite movie of all time. And it may surprise you to learn it doesn’t feature sharks, wookies or guys in masks.
Casablanca (1942)
Looking back Casablanca had probably inspired my love for movies than any other film I’ve ever seen. More than Star Wars, more than Reservoir Dogs, maybe only Jaws could give it a decent run for it’s money.
I first saw Casablanca when I was around ten and it was at my Grandparents where the family had gathered to watch a television broadcast one afternoon (families used to actually do that back in the day and most houses only had one television in it too).
I became mesmerised. It wasn’t so much the story, which I managed to follow ok even though at that age I didn’t grasp the complexities of Germany and France having joint custody of the neutral Casablanca. It was one character that I reacted to and made me fall in love with this movie. A character that could have played very differently if original choice Ronald Reagan had taken the role. It was Rick, the world weary cynic played with unforgettably and with rugged intensity by Humphrey Bogart.
There’s one line early in the film that forever stayed with me and I can actually remember clear as day the first time I heard it. I immediately knew it to be an awesome line, even before I knew the concept of a “line.” It comes when Peter Lorre’s Ugarte (whose features and manner I found devilishly creepy and sinister) has been carted away screaming, begging Rick to help him. As Rick watches on he’s approached by someone who says he hopes Rick will be more helpful when they come for him.
To which Rick drily responds”I stick my neck out for nobody.”
I’ll never forget when I first heard that line or the joy I felt when many years later I found a T-Shirt in a Warner Brothers store with that quote on it and a picture of Bogart. In that statement, Rick reveals everything about his philosophy on life and where his mind is in Casablanca at that time. As a hero he was unlike any I’d seen in a film before. Bitter, miserable and seemingly with few scruples, potentially ruthless yet as his conversation with Captain Renault showed (who conversely as a villain I found amazingly mild mannered and seemingly cheerful) was once a romantic and was on the losing sides of many wars because of it.
And then there’s that moment when the control he has on his life is torn apart as he goes to chastise Sam the piano player for playing the forbidden “As time goes by” and finds himself staring at his former lover Ilsa Lund, the person that provoked this cynical outlook on life. The pain in his stare is palatable as Time Goes by is reprised in the most dramatic, goosebump inducing way. You can almost see his heart shattering as he fights to control his emotions when introduced to Lund’s lover, the man he realises she ran out on him for, the resistance leader Victor Laszlo.
Worse moments are to come for Rick when the suarve, cool, calculating figure we first met crumples into a heap of drunken bitterness, pity and hatred. When Lund comes to visit him and try to explain as best she can, the venom in Rick’s retort “Tell me, who was it you left me for? Was it Lazlo, or were there others in between or… aren’t you the kind that tells?” absolutely burns.
Casablanca had me under it’s spell. I knew I was watching greatness, it would have been hard for me to imagine that when it was made it wasn’t meant to be anything special. It was simply another melodramatic romance film being churned out of the Hollywood studio system. I sat spellbound as Rick later nonchalantly faces down Ilsa, a gun at his chest demanding he hands over the letter of transit. “You’ll be doing me a favour,” he says and he means it, he’s dead inside at this point.
Of course we all know where this is heading, that final scene one of the greatest moments in movie history. Rick, with everything he wants in his grasp, Ilsa as his lover and a new life in America awaiting him sacrifices it all for the greater good, sending her on his way with Laszlo, the nearest we’ve seen him happy as he finds redemption with possibly the greatest monologue of all time.
Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You’re part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.
We’ll always have Paris. We didn’t have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
But I’ve got a job to do, too. Where I’m going, you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of. Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you’ll understand that.
And then there is pause for that moment anyone who watches Casablanca for the first time is waiting for, a line I already knew so well but had never heard in context. A line delivered so beautifully, matching perfectly as time goes by plays along.
Here’s looking at you kid.
How could I be destined to be anything but a romantic for life after seeing that scene. I embraced the melodrama of that moment, for now and forever.
I began to watch Casablanca whenever it was shown on television, it became a weird tradition. As I got older I gained an even greater appreciation of the film. I began to recognise the dark, biting humour of the cutting dialogue that would bring a smile to my face. There are so many lines in that film, you could treat the entire script as just one big movie quote.
Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault: I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier arrives and hands Renault a pile of money]
Cropier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: Oh, thank you very much! Everybody out at once!
Casablanca is pure gold from start to finish. It’s as perfect as any movie can get when it comes to drawing you in and hitting on your emotions. And it will always be my favourite movie. Anytime I’m feeling down or blue, Casablanca is my go to film.
Incidentally in 1998 Warner Brothers released a novel “As time goes by” by Michael Walsh which was the official sequel to Casablanca. This piece of shit was the worst novel I have ever read. It takes up seconds after the film ends with Rick and Renault on the runaway flippantly deciding not to go to the French Garrison but instead get the next plane out of Casablanca and follow Elsa and Lazlo. They go back to Rick’s gather all the bar staff and shoot their way out of Casablanca. Next it turns out this was the plan all along and that Rick and Elsa’s big speech on the runaway was just for show (which takes away the entire redemption and sacrifice payoff ).
The gang make their way to Paris, form a resistance cell where Lazlo turns traitor and is killed by Rick. Rick and Elsa get married and live happily ever after. Fuck you Michael Walsh and anyone who greenlit this fucking horrible novel. It’s out of print and fucking good riddance to it.
Hardware (1980)
Film director Richard Stanley first got his start behind a camera making music videos and a documentary following the lives of resistance fighters in the Afghan Soviet war.
His big break in movies came in 1990 when he wrote and directed a film called Hardware, film set in a world where society was on the brink of falling apart. Cities are in ruins due to Nuclear war, resources are scarce and the Government edges towards Totalitarianism. A scavenger uncovers a deactivated robot in the desert and sells it to a retired solider Mo who makes a gift of it’s head to his artist girlfriend Jill who uses it for one of her sculptures.
The Robot awakens and rebuilds itself and proceeds to attack and terrorise Jill. A terrifying and violent cat and mouse chase ensures around Jill’s apartment as the artist must battle what turns out to be a robot solider to survive.
There was a fair amount of buzz for the movie and although reviews were mixed, the gritty, punky feel and blistering rock soundtrack along with cameos by Iggy Pop and Lemmy gave this an underground, cult feel and gained the film a loyal following. Then someone from the UK’s greatest comic 2000AD saw the film and went “What the fuck????”
Back in 1981 a one off strip had appeared in the Judge Dredd annual about a guy who gives the remains of a scavenged deactivated solider robot to his artist girlfriend for her to build into one of her sculptures. The robot rebuilds itself and a terrifying and violent cat and mouse chase ensures around her apartment. Sound familar? Even the robot in the strip looked similar to the one in Hardware.
A lawsuit was filed and a Judge agreed that Hardware went beyond influence and had actually plagiarised the story Shok! Therefore, later video and DVD releases would give a “story based on” credit to Shok’s creator’s Steve MacManus and Kevin O’Neill. In a roundabout way Stanley had created one of the few 2000ad films to make it to the big screen.
2000AD story aside this is a great creative little movie, with a modern “Grindhouse” feel due to it’s low budget (production costs were around a million), but still manages to have impressive special effects. The Mark 13 (named after the bible line Mark 13:20 “No flesh shall be spared,”) looks terrifyingly believable in it’s movements which are all practical effects, the heavy steel puppetry proving far superior to anything CGI could come up with. Even when static the robot head is creepily life like, such as when it’s eyes watch Jill having sex with Mo.
There’s a fair amount of gore and violence in the film which earned it an X rating and hindered publicity for the film. This was actually a cut down version with many close ups edited out by the studio. The finished film could have been even more extreme as Stanley had scripted a scene where the robot attempts to rape Jill with a phallic like drill. However some of the female members of the crew strongly objected to this and the scene was not filmed after most of the production crew refused to have anything to do with it.
Hardware looks great. It was a hard gritty vibe, but filmed at the backend of the 80’s is still gloriously colourful, the USA flag motif on the helmet and the early desert scenes being prime examples of this.
Stanley did have plans for a sequel which in the fashion of the Alien franchise (which Hardware resembles in many ways) would have numerous Mark 13s, fully functional and armed this time. Sadly these never saw the light of day.
On the back of Hardware Stanley was being hailed as a future Hollywood talent, however he went on to direct the Island of Doctor Moreau. The shooting descended into a nightmare due to the antics of it’s leading men Val Kilmner and Marlon Brando causing chaos which was so notorious it inspired an excellent documentary. Stanley was fired after three days after clashes with an uncooperative Kilmner. Stanley’s promising career was destroyed and he mainly went back to making short films and documentaries again.
Persepolis (2007)
The animated Persepolis is on the face of it a very simple movie, but like the 2000 graphic novel it’s spawned from it’s a very ambitious work. In a rarity in graphic novel adaptations, Persepolis recreates the original artwork and literally brings the comic to life. It also manages to condense Marjane Satrapi’s epic narrative of her life growing up in the turbulent 1980’s Iran into 90 minutes without compromising it.
Marjane is born into a politically active family in Iran who are opposed to the leadership of the Shah, yet find the replacement of an Islamisc Fundamentalist government just as oppressive in it’s own way. Her uncle who survived ten years in prison for resisting against the Shah ends up being executed for his politics under the Islamists. Her family attempt to live with the enforced morality of this new regime, however the rebellious nature of the family has rubbed off too well on Marjane.
While her parents and Grandmother (who Marjane has a touching relationship with) discreetly attend private parties to indulge in banned practices such as drinking alcohol, Marjane’s rebellion is far more open. She speaks up against the injustices and restrictions against women. She develops a love of western rock music and buys prohibited cassettes on the black market and even wears denim which brings the attention of her religious oppressors.
Eventually as her dissent grows she’s convinced to leave Iran to study abroad and eventually leave forever to avoid being targeted as a political dissident and risk imprisonment or possibly even execution. Even abroad in countries where she can express herself freely she finds life difficult, the differences in culture making her feel isolated without her family.
Persepolis is an enjoyable and important movie on so many levels. It’s the story of a headstrong, intelligent girl with all the dreams and worries of any teenager but having to cope with also living in a tyrannical regime that is at odds with the teachings and background of her family. The adoption of Sharia law and it’s harsh repression and censorship of the arts conflicts with a young women desperate to express herself. It’s also an insightful account of the history and culture of Iran and the part the West played in interfering in it’s affairs.
As alien as that society may seem to Western audiences, the simple cartoon like artwork (powerfully rendered in straight blocky images of black and white without depth or shading) helps to present Marjane and her family with only the vaguest sense of race. This was a deliberate act in the graphic novel to make it easier relate for Western audiences.
Persepolis is a powerful, moving and important movie. Like the graphic novel it should be required consumption for all teenagers, whatever faith, nationality or gender as it’s themes of the desire for freedom and finding an identity in the face of the meddling of the previous generations is a common unifying experience of youth.
For those that baulk at having to read subtitles in foreign movies there is also a very good English dubbing version featuring Catherine Deneuve, Sean Penn and apparently Iggy Pop in an uncredited role as the rebellious Uncle.
God Bless America (2011)
The term “guilty pleasure” seems to used mainly to describe the enjoyment to be found in liking a movie that you know is actually bad. However I’d argue there is another “guilty pleasure,” that been living vicariously through characters and rooting for them even though knowing what they are doing is inherently wrong.
Like with this really fun but violent satire, God Bless America, the brainchild of Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait (the funny talking one from a few of the Police Academy movies and the John Cusak 80’s comedy One Crazy Summer).
This Straight to Video on Demand movie (doesn’t quite roll off the tongue does it?) starts with middle aged, every man Frank Murdoch alone in his small home unable to sleep due to his obnoxiously loud neighbours and their crying baby. What follows is one of the most insane and shocking openings to a movie ever and your reaction to it will either be jaw dropping hilarity or utter disgust. Either way ,you’ll learn in that moments whether your sense of humour is the right fit for this black comedy.
If you’re still watching by this point you’re treated to a tour by Frank’s remote control of the festering ugliness of the worst of American Television. A montage of parodies targeting the likes of American Idol, Jack-Ass, Right Wing Fox News style commentaries, Infomercials, reality TV and especially striking a cord with My spoilt, bitchface, rich teenager’s 16th Birthday (I don’t know what the show is called exactly but you know the one I’m talking about). With the state of society on display driving him to depression his life begins to fall apart as his bratty eight year old daughter doesn’t want to see him for his visitation rights, he’s fired from his job when his sweet attempt to cheer up a female colleague with flowers is considered harassment and he is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour (the Doctor who breaks this news to him interrupts the conversation to take a phone call and berate a car dealership for getting him a car with the wrong shade of colour).
Though suicidal he decides to go out in a blaze of glory by stealing his arsehole neighbours car and travels to kill the spoilt, schoolgirl star Chole who has her own reality TV show. To the strains of Alice Cooper’s School’s Out he first attempts to trap her in car and blow it up, but after clumsily botching this he resorts to shooting her in the head. A shocking act which due to the ugly, obnoxious personality of Chole wins over the audience and also a fan of an eye witness in a young girl called Roxy played by Tara Lynne Barr (who is a star of television series Casual which I’ve never heard of but apparently is popular).
Roxy a highschool loner has a perkiness rivalled only by her sadistic anger and she convinces Frank to allow her to accompany him on a killspree across America, taking out anyone with inconsiderate or arseholish behaviour.
God Bless America feels a glossy, cheaper and more blunt version of Falling Down. There is something extremely cathartic about following the duos rampage as the comedy tone of the film allows you to bypass the reality of the nastiness of what they are inflicting. Of course it helps that their targets are the sort of people you’d like to see get theirs, if you’re anything like me.
Aside from the various reality television shows already mentioned (especially prominent is a American Idol style tryout who gives a humiliatingly bad performance and attempts suicide after), the duo goes after a Fox News style commentator (who I hate and would happily see get a kicking), a leader of a “God hates fags” style Westboro County Church style leader that protest at funerals (also I’d like to see get a kicking), drivers who take up two parking spaces (definitely deserves a seeing to) and a group of arrogant teenagers that talk through a movie at the cinema (fuck I’d swing for bastards that do that). Wow, it’s like someone made a film of all the things that make my blood pressure rise.
It’s a fun movie, though disturbing if you think too hard about the consquences of their actions and you have to accept it as having a fantasy element of it. Even so the finale which sees the two plan a massacre on live TV at the final of the American Idol show (where the young lad who attempted suicide is seemingly been exploited by being brought back to perform and be mocked) feels especially unpleasant.
Also unsettling is the dynamic of the duo when a few times Roxy seems to be flirting with Frank, but the film wisely makes it plain that he has no romantic interest in their partnership.
I really enjoyed God Bless America, a surprising joy I stumbled across while browsing through Amazon Prime one afternoon. It does have the feel of a low budget film found back in he days on Blockbuster shelves when a decent amount of care was given in producing straight to video movies. Fortunately with Amazon and Netflix desperate for new content to fill their services with, this is a genre that is thankfully on the rise again with some refreshing and original movies been given a platform waiting to be discovered.
On the next Couchzone Movie club I will be once again taking a look at four movies that I hate. So expect to see Tom Cruise having a hizzy argument against someone quite out of his acting league, Quentin Tarantino disappearing up his own arse, a very dumb concept for an MMA tournament and a bunch of blokes get their cocks out.
Til next time
Dazza
