Lincoln

 
For almost twenty years, Steven Spielberg tried to bring the life of Abraham Lincoln on the big screen; now, he has succeeded with his sprawling two and a half hour depiction of the last three months of Lincoln's presidency. The first shots of the film are a montage of soldiers being bayoneted and pummeled into the muddy ground as the Civil War is at its peak in January of 1865. However, do not expect a drawn-out battle sequence as in Saving Private Ryan as Spielberg focuses on the nation's divide and bitterness towards Lincoln (Daniel-Day Lewis) as he tries to pass the 13th Amendment, which would abolish slavery. While not sitting with his staff trying to get the pro-slavery Democrats trying to side with him, Lincoln is trying to be a dutiful father and husband to his two surviving sons and his wife, Mary Todd (Sally Field) as she is still in shock over the death of their son, William.

Spielberg reunites with Pulitzer-playwright, Tony Kushner (Angels in America, Munich), as his prose is as eloquent as the history he compresses into his screenplay, which is thanks to the research done by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Think of it as The West Wing set in the 19th Century. Spielberg also reunites with cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski, as his use of shadows and piercing light reflect the period of time as well as act as a metaphor to the divide Lincoln stands between the Union and Confederacy. In addition to the screenplay and cinematography, John Williams' score (minimal compared to his past work) is stripped down and subtle in contrast to the boisterous activity thriving on Capitol Hill throughout the film.  

Lincoln has been portrayed in the past by such leading men as Henry Fonda and Hal Holbrook (who gives a great performance as Preston Blair), yet it is Daniel Day-Lewis' portrayal of the 16th President that stands out as the best. One score and seven years ago, Day-Lewis graced the screen with a canon of roles that cement him as the best actor since Jack Nicholson; from Christy Brown in My Left Foot to Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood. His tenor voice and physical transformation into Abraham Lincoln is amazing as it is audacious.

Next to Day-Lewis, Sally Field shines as Mary Todd Lincoln as she veers in and out of her sanity when she is behind closed doors or anxiously observing the divided members of Congress. Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives a solid performance as Robert Lincoln, who is portrayed in the film as a historical Biff Lohman; stubborn and rebellious by going against his father's ambitions. Tommy Lee Jones is sensational as Thaddeus Stevens as he gives a tongue-lashing to Congress with such glee and gusto over the passing of the 13th Amendment.

Although Lincoln is not Steven Spielberg's greatest work, it is a visually descriptive look at American politics and humanity as was his 1997 film, Amistad. The story of Lincoln's life is well known, but it is the journey of seeing him at the peak of his presidency and his life depicted by Day-Lewis that makes Lincoln a memorable film.

Three out of Four Stars

Django Unchained

If Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah had a baby, they would have named it Quentin Tarantino. Django Unchained is Tarantino's latest film that pays homage to the western genre with copious amounts of blood and humor that would even make John Wayne shiver in his grave. After being rescued by a gun-wielding dentist/bounty hunter named Dr. King (Christoph Waltz), Django (Jamie Foxx) seeks vengeance against the sadistic plantation owner, Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), who bought his wife, Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) by searching high and low over the Confederate South. Along the way, Django and King go from plantation to plantation building up their bounty and the body count of sheet-wearing horsemen who step in their way.

After a succession of hit and miss films, such as the Kill Bill movies and Death Proof, Tarantino closed out the last decade with the successful Inglourious Basterds and has now raised the blood-soaked bar with Django Unchained. The gun-toting action amidst the sprawling landscape mirror that of the red shades of Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western films of the Sixties. Tarantino's wide-eyed look at the Pre-Confederate South is complimented with Robert Richardson's lighting showing that he is no stranger to the wild work of Tarantino and Oliver Stone.

Jamie Foxx is amazing as Django by undergoing the transformation from a slave to a redeemer with a six-shooter. Christoph Waltz is unforgettable as the flamboyantly verbose Dr. King as he takes Django under his wing and grooms him into "the finest shot in the south." Leonardo DiCaprio is wickedly charming and sadistic as Candie giving a villainous performance that would make his mentor, Martin Scorsese, grin like a Cheshire cat. Samuel L. Jackson rounds off the stellar cast as Candie's house slave, Steven, whose baritone voice and utterance of every f-word is like Olivier reciting Shakespeare.  

As the year winds down, Django Unchained stands as one of the best films of the year, if not one of Tarantino's finest achievements as a filmmaker. Despite the controversy he has been getting by the peanut gallery, it is overshadowed by bringing the western genre to a new generation of film-goers mixed with an eclectic soundtrack ranging from Ennio Morricone, Jim Croce, and Rick Ross. It may not be as groundbreaking as Pulp Fiction, but it's no matter as Django Unchained rings in the new year with a bang.            

Four out of Four Stars

Cinema After Newtown

On Friday, December 14th, tragedy struck the small town of Newtown,CT when 26 people were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, including the gunman who took his own life afterwards. I didn't hear the news until after I walked home from substitute teaching at Merrimack Valley High School. As someone who works in the education field, I was shocked and saddened by the news. No words can ease the pain to the families of those who have suffered a great loss.

In the wake of the Newtown tragedy, film premieres of Jack Reacher and Django Unchained were pushed back out of respect for the events that occurred a week ago. Last night, Dr. Chuck Williams of the University of Pennsylvania went on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News program stating that "After what happened on Friday, everybody has to look at what part thay have to play in creating this culture of violence." He continues by  citing the research of Albert Bandura and his "Bobo doll" experiement in which children mimicked the behavior they witnessed on television by hitting an inflatable doll and how today's films show gratuitous violence for the sake of being violent.

The knee-jerk reactions are not uncommon in the wake of such tragedies. Consider the release of Oliver Stone's 1994 film, "Natural Born Killers", which was based on Quentin Tarantino's screenplay; the satire on the supersaturation of mass-media was put on the witness stand by John Grisham and Patsy Byers after a couple of kids allegedly took LSD, watched "Natural Born Killers", and murdered William Savage, a cotton gin manager from Hernando, Mississippi. Warner Bros. and Oliver Stone were sued for being culpable of inciting mass-violence by releasing the film. The case was eventually thrown out in March of 2001.

The same knee-jerk reactions came after the release of Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film, "A Clockwork Orange." In 2010, I wrote a research paper for the Eastern Communication Association on the film and pointed out the reactionary measures and rhetoric taken by those persecuting indivuduals for committing violent acts based on the film:

In Vincent LoBrutto’s biography of Stanley Kubrick, the link to the film and violence caused Judge Desmond Baily, who presided over convicting a sixteen year old boy of beating a homeless person to death, stated that “‘We must stamp out this horrible trend of which had been inspired by this wretched film. We appreciate that what you did was inspired by the wicked film, but that does not mean that you are blameworthy’” (LoBrutto 368). When has a judge ever mentioned that they appreciated the actions of one person who killed someone based on a film or a piece of music? In essence, Judge Baily’s words were part of a witch hunt over films that shied away from the traditional merits of cinema by making a subversive film, not the person who committed acts of violence, a menace to society. (Stewart, 26)

It is common for analysts and pundits to point the finger at music, video games, and film as the enablers of violent behavior. However, the expression of violence in the aforementioned mediums comes from holding up a mirror to society and acts as a catharsis to the artists expressing the flaws of society. In conclusion, those guilty of their crimes should be punished for their acts, not the artists who have no control over how their work is perceived by one out of a million people.          

Exile from Hollywood: 65 years later

Charlie Chaplin, Clifford Odets, and Paul Robeson: these are a few of the hundreds of names that were the casualties of one of the darkest periods in film history, The Hollywood Blacklist. From 1947 to the early 1960s, actors, writers, and directors were prosecuted in a witch-hunt orchestrated by the House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and Senator Joseph McCarthy in an attempt to weed out the threat of Communism in post-war America. Those who were associated to unions, or groups that had Communist philosophies, were subpoenaed by the HUAC and forced to name names of fellow entertainers. Those who did name names held on to their careers in Hollywood, such as Elia Kazan and Ronald Reagan, but at the cost of their dignity in the eyes of many who stood up against the Blacklist. For those who didn’t reveal names of their fellow friends and associates were either arrested, prevented from working in Hollywood, or committed suicide.                                                                                                         

This year marks the 65^th anniversary of the Blacklist, which is highlighted in the November 30^th edition of The Hollywood Reporter. THR has devoted the issue to the survivors and family members of the Blacklist, by revealing their time in exile from the American film industry; some never entered the gates of film studios again, while others have managed to rise again in Hollywood. Sean Penn writes about his father, Leo Penn, and how his acting/directing career rose as quickly as it fell when he was blacklisted. Kirk Douglas risked his own career by producing and starring in Spartacus, which was penned by Blacklisted screenwriter and author, Dalton Trumbo. Throughout the 1950s, Lee Grant was exiled from the film and television industry until she starred in Peyton’s Place, co-starred opposite Sidney Poitier in In the Heat of the Night, and won an Academy Award in 1975 for her performance in Hal Ashby’s film, Shampoo.                                                                                                                                                                                               
Up until his death in 2003, Elia Kazan remained synonymous for being the director who gave up the names of his fellow actors and directors rather than as the filmmaker behind On the Waterfront and East of Eden. When Kazan received the Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 1999, half the audience applauded while the other half sat in protest over the Academy’s decision to reward him after naming names.  65 years on, shades of the Hollywood Blacklist lingers over the country; from the finger-pointing of conservative pundits and their views on Hollywood liberals, to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences failing to apologize and admit their role during a period that has tarnished the lives of many based on the assumption that Communism would plague America through the medium of film.      

Skyfall

Neil Young penned the infamous question, “is it better to burn out than to fade away?”  When you ask that question regarding film franchises, answers vary (The Batman films? No. Superman films? Yes. Star Wars? Yes). In the case of the James Bond films, which have been around for fifty years, they age like good scotch; the latest 007 film, Skyfall, leaves you intoxicated with a story as explosive as the gauntlet of bombs and bullets Bond runs through. With Academy Award-winning director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition) behind the camera, he manages to resurrect the 007 series after Mark Forster’s failed attempt four years earlier, Quantum of Solace.

                                                                                              

After a list of active NATO secret agents is leaked online and a terrorist attack on MI6 headquarters, James Bond (Daniel Craig) tries to find the mastermind behind the attacks. Bond’s search leads him to Silva (Javier Bardem), a sadistic and flamboyant renegade agent. Meanwhile, M’s (Judi Dench) trust comes into question as she is under scrutiny by the British Government for the failed attempt of securing the identities of the NATO agents.  Can Bond keep England safe from the hands of Silva, or has he lost his luster?

Daniel Craig fails to disappoint as Bond as he casts aside the high-tech weapons with the standard pistol and radio at his disposal. Judi Dench is at her best as M, as she carries the role she has played for almost twenty years with dignity and grace when faced with public scrutiny and fear for her life. Javier Bardem is as equally vicious and charismatic in this film as he was in No Country For Old Men five years earlier; in particular, when he decides to play William Tell with a glass of scotch. Rounding up the stellar cast is Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, and a sawed off shotgun-toting Albert Finney.

Mendes steps aside from the canon of dramatic films he is well-known for and raises the bar with a sleek and seductive film that finds the balance between the suspense and drama, which is similar to how he blended the violence and emotional fragility of his protagonists in Road to Perdition. Roger Deakins’ cinematography is bold and expansive as his previous work with the Coen Brothers. Thomas Newman’s score emphasizes every punch and bullet flying through the air with such intensity as the strings and horns peel throughout the film. Plus, the opening song performed by Adele foreshadows the soul and beauty that unfolds throughout the next two hours and twenty minutes.

Fifty years on, James Bond remains an icon in cinema. Despite a few flawed 007 films from the past, Skyfall will live on as a stunning achievement celebrating Ian Fleming’s stellar vision of espionage that manages to shake and stir generations of Bond-aficionados.                      

Four out of Four Stars

Harris Savides (1957-2012)

Harris Savides, the BAFTA nominated cinematographer and contributing DP for Gus Van Sant, Ridley Scott, and David Fincher, died today at the age of 55.  In a career that has spanned almost 25 years, he started his work in film as the director of music videos for R.E.M., Madonna, and Michael Jackson. His panache for German-Expressionist chiaroscuro mixed brilliantly under the direction David Fincher when Savides acted as cinematographer for Fincher's 1997 thriller, The Game. Savides would bring the same film-noir style when he collaborated with Fincher in 2007 for the film, Zodiac, as well as reveal the world of corruption and drug smuggling in Ridley Scott's American Gangster, for which Savides was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Cinematography. Savides is best known for acting as DP under Gus Van Sant for his films Gerry, Elephant, and Milk. The last film he worked on was Sophia Coppola's The Bling Ring, which is scheduled for release in 2013.

Savides was a brilliant cinematographer; like those before him, such as Conrad L. Hall, he managed to bring beauty and horror within the shadows of the characters onscreen with minimal lighting, such as he had displayed in Fincher's films. Also, his use of the stedicam in Van Sant's films are as chilling as Kubrick's floating camera was used in The Shining. Look at how he manages to add the suspense to the post-Columbine film, Elephant, as the camera hovers around like a fly on the wall. His close-ups and tracking shots of the actors are chilling to watch, whether it is a tortured Michael Douglas in The Game, or a vengeance-filled Josh Brolin in Milk as he walks down the hallways of San Francisco's City Hall ready to assassinate Harvey Milk. There are very few cinematographers like Savides and his use of lighting and positioning of the camera enhanced the emotions of the audience, as well as brought the canon of films he had worked on to a higher level as anticipated by the directors he had worked with.              

The Master

3 1/2 out of 4 Stars

Paul Thomas Anderson is the master of modern cinema, there’s no disputing that if you look back at his five previous masterpieces; Sydney (Hard Eight), Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, and There Will Be Blood. Anderson’s sixth film, The Master, is a film of beautiful imagery with a flawed story to tell.                                                                                                                 

              Set at the end of World War II, Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) is a former Navel seaman trying to adapt back to the real world after witnessing the horrors of the Pacific. Quell is far from a soldier dealing with post-traumatic stress; his anger and sexual conquests come from an area so deep that Daniel Plainview couldn’t dig it up with all the derricks in There Will Be Blood. Enter Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the flamboyant leader of a religious organization known only as The Cause. Peanut galleries have flocked with speculation over Hoffman’s performance mirroring the real-life exploits of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. The Scientology parallel is just a dead end as The Cause can be broken down into any religious organization. The chance meeting between Freddie and Lancaster lead to a love-hate relationship between two men trying to find meaning in their lives, whether it is from illusions of grandeur to lead-based alcohol.

             Despite the flaws in the plot, it is the actors that hold The Master together. Joaquin Phoenix gives ones of the most intense, violent and darkly comic performances of the year as Freddie Quell. From the subtle idiosyncrasies expressed on his face to the balls-to-the-wall rage unleashed on others, his performance is an explosive powder keg that will leave an aftershock long after the credits roll. Phoenix’s rage is mixed with a charm and wily sense of humor that he managed to pull off in real life a few years ago with his short-lived rap career.

            Philip Seymour Hoffman’s portrayal of Lancaster Dodd marks his fifth collaboration with Anderson in The Master. Hoffman’s pathos and wit amongst his followers mirrors that of Orson Welles or Charles Laughton in their prime. Like Freddie, Dodd is a man uncertain of his existence to the point that when he is boxed in a corner, he leaves an impression that will leave the hairs on the back of your neck stand. Hoffman’s chemistry with Phoenix is unbelievable in two key scenes in the movie; one involves a wide-eyed dissection of Freddie’s past while the other involves both men in a jail cell that makes De Niro’s prison scene in Raging Bull pale in comparison.

                Behind every powerful actor is a powerful actress, and Amy Adams is one of them. Her performance as Lancaster’s devoted wife is mesmerizing as she stands as a woman with as much as a thrill for power as her husband to the point where she takes command over Lancaster in a memorable bathroom scene. Adams is, without a doubt, one of the great actresses of her generation as she fires from all cylinders with such restraint that it’s chilling.      

                Anderson shot the film in 65mm film, as well as edited by hand. After seeing the film in both 70mm format and 35mm format, the visuals are equally seductive and powerful that the spirits of David Lean and George Stevens are smiling within the cosmos. The visuals are complemented with Jonny Greenwood’s intense score that is a step forward from the minimalist approach he took to scoring There Will Be Blood. 

             Technical aspects aside, the story does fall short with some head scratching uncertainty over the resolution of the story that almost mirrors that to the surreal prose of Thomas Pynchon. If one were to dissect the film with a fine tooth comb, it is a unique blend of John Huston's controversial documentary, Let There Be Light (at least, the first ten minutes of the film), and Elmer Gantry. All things considered, The Master may not be Anderson’s strongest film, but it is an unforgettable film that will leave you thirsty for a second viewing.      

Tony Scott (1944-2012)

Tony Scott, director of the classic blockbuster films Top Gun and Crimson Tide, died at the age of 68 from a suicide attempt. The Emmy-Award winning producer jumped to his death on Sunday afternoon from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles. The LAPD found a suicide note in Scott's Toyota Prius, which was parked along the bridge.

Born and raised in England, Scott, along with his brother, Ridley, became the successful directors of the Eighties; the blockbuster films Scott directed were Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II and True Romance. The no-holds bar action and suspense became trademarks for Tony Scott's films. His last set of films included the 2009 remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 and 2010's Unstoppable. Along with his brother, Tony co-founded Scott Free Productions, which has produced several television shows, such as Numb3rs and The Good Wife, as well as Oscar nominated films, like Gladiator and American Gangster.

Scott was a visual entertainer, who knew how to keep the audience on the edge of their seats; from the aerial dogfights in Top Gun to the hotel room shootout in True Romance. His guerrilla-styled cinematography and fast-paced editing became the inspiration for directors like Oliver Stone, Paul Greengrass and Kathryn Bigelow. Scott is survived by his wife and two children.          

The Beasts of the Southern Wild

This summer has been packed with box office hits (The Dark Knight Rises) and art house favorites (Moonrise Kingdom). However, one film stands out as not only the best film of the summer, but one of the top films of the year, The Beasts of the Southern Wild. Based on Lucy Alibar’s play “Juicy and Delicious”, Hushpuppy is a six-year old girl trying to survive in the squalor of her Delta, post-Katrina, home by attempting to find her mother, while her father, Wink, is dying of heart failure. Despite his alcoholism and embittered attitude, Wink teaches his daughter how to become independent by living off the land and water.                                                                          

 Like Mike Nichols and Sam Mendes, Benh Zeitlin has created a directorial debut that is sure to be a modern masterpiece as time moves on. Zeitlin managed to create a dark and beautiful film by mixing the cinema verite style of John Cassavetes while honing in on Hushpuppy’s nightmarish/wide-eyed imagination that mirrors the work of Terry Gilliam. Zeitlin’s guerrilla styled filmmaking is complimented by his own musical score with its suspenseful pizzicato passages and Appalachian-styled sequences that echo T-Bone Burnett’s Southern-infused film scores from Crazy Heart and O Brother, Where Art Thou?

                

In addition to the incredible filmmaking is an incredible cast of unknowns, who deliver astonishing performances from start to finish. Quvenzhané Wallis is awe-inspiring as the young, tenacious Hushpuppy. Only six-years old, Wallis delivers a moving performance of shifting from childhood to adulthood through pain and hope. New Orleans bakery owner, Dwight Henry, is incredible as the stubborn and sickly patriarch who manages to teach Hushpuppy the importance of standing strong in a sorrowful world through love as tough as nails.

                 

The Dark Knight Rises might have been explosive with its quarter of a billion dollar budget, but with a cast of unknowns and a budget under $2 million, The Beasts of the Southern Wild is proof positive that you don’t need to be swayed by dazzling special effects and star power to get a profound response; you can easily be moved to tears with a heartfelt and harrowing tale, such as this film, that will leave you speechless when the credits roll.      

Four out of Four Stars