great_badir
Posts: 4178
Joined: 6/10/2005
From: A breaking rope bridge in the middle of the jungle
|
 105 Hearts Of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, Fax Bahr & George Hickenlooper (1991)
The general mood in the Apocalypse Now camp during its 10 odd year journey from initial idea (courtesy of George Lucas) to screen, including 5 plus years of production hell, was exhausted frustration. Directors Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper (great names, both) make good use of Eleanor Coppola's stunnging archive footage in Hearts Of Darkness, picking apart what was driving everyone (mad) at the time and mixing it all with (then) present day talking heads with the benefit of hindsight. The archive footage basically shows a director at odds with his cast, crew and surroundings, but one who is so wrapped up in completing his pet project that he doesn't let anything (not even the near death of Martin Sheen and the demands of working with both a fat and pretentious Brando, AND a wired Dennis Hopper.....all at the same time!!!) get in his way. The latter day interviews show the key players proud and largely relaxed about the whole thing, despite Sheen barely escaping the grim reaper by the skin of his teeth and everyone else being driven clear to the nuthouse. For years it was also the only way we could see tantalising glimpses of stuff that didn't end up in the finished film (remember, Redux wasn't even a spark in Coppola's brain when this came out) and even some very brief footage of the earliest screen version with Harvey Keitel in the Willard role. Hearts Of Darkness could well be the best making-of documentary yet made.
Special mention: Poor old Terry Gilliam. The man hasn't had an easy break since The Fisher King, and the proverbial noose around his neck hasn't loosened an inch in the intervening years. But he deserves much respect for never giving up, no matter how many times he's knocked down. His most recent battle with the two-faced Weinsteins did, eventually, result in a film (The Brothers Grimm), but the walking disaster that was his long cherished Don Quixote fantasy proved to be one lofty idea too far. An ailing star, clashing schedules, previously unheard of weather and less than happy financiers all combined to pip this one at the post. Well, BEFORE the post, actually. Arguably, he should have (and probably did) known better - Quixote has been a legendarily difficult story to bring to the screen, with most directors either presenting a mediocre result, or (as in Orson Welles's case) never being able to finish the thing in the first place. Gilliam's was the most adventurous version yet, adding in a time travel element, and whilst test footage looked awesome, there just wasn't enough time or money for the project to be finished. Keith Fulton and Louise Pepe's documentary Lost In La Mancha (2002) originally started out as a run-of-the-mill making of, but it soon became clear that they were actually documenting the crumbling of a dream and the near destroying of a career. Also featuring one of the most heartbreaking moments in filmmaking history, as Gilliam watches an entire painstakingly built set wash away before his eyes in a freak storm. If I ever win stupid money on the lottery, Gilliam gets a million or two from me.
_____________________________
FAVE FILMS
BO BOMBS
|
Printable Version
RE: great badir's top 150 films - 
). Anyway, when's the next one up?
111 Django, Sergio Corbucci (1966) 
110 Mallrats, Kevin Smith (1995) 
109 Wong Fei Huing (AKA Once Upon A Time In China), Tsui Hark (1991) 
108 Strange Brew, Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas (1983)If you don't crack a smirk at the line "take off, hoser", then you either haven't heard of the Mckenzie Brothers, or you don't find Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas's idiotic Canadian beer lovers funny. Strange Brew is one of those films with a brilliant pedigree and a built-in fanbase that did no business whatsoever and disappeared almost immediately. It's a shame, cos this dumb comedy take on Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) is full of genius moments and the always hilarious canadian stereotypes (cf. Canadian Bacon and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut). It's also immensely influential - without the Mckenzies and Strange Brew, we probably wouldn't have got Wayne & Garth (some would say that's a good thing). Top props have to go to the always game Max Von Sydow, wisely playing it dead straight as if he were in another Bergman tragedy. Endlessly quotable too - "Luke, join the dark side you nob", "let's get some beer, eh?", "just because I don't know what it is, it doesn't mean i'm lying!!" and, of course, the aforementioned "take off, hoser".
107 Hoop Dreams, Steve James (1994) Massive true-life documentary following two basketball hopefuls from troubled school life to the verge of big league stardom and back again. The subjects, Arthur Agee and William Gates, opened their lives to James and his crew for literally years (five, to be exact) allowing everything from their triumphs on the court, to one of their own parents dealing out crack off court, to be filmed without censoring. It's bold and simultaneously heart warming and breaking stuff - with both men ultimately failing to match their dreams, they nevertheless have a successful life to show off in the shape of close family and helping others with a similar poverty-row background. At a shave under three hours long, it's epic stuff indeed and there's even a villain-of-the-piece in the shape of sly coach Gene Pingatore, who promises far more than he ever delivers, destroying confidence and enthusiasm with equal abandon (boo, hiss). One of the finest documentaries ever made.
106 Days Of Heaven, Terrence Malick (1978)A mere (in Malick terms) five years after hitting big with Badlands, Malick showed the first signs of eccentricities that he would later become famous for. Throwing out his own script after only a couple of months of filming, the director gave free reign to his cast, encouraging them to "find" the story in their owncharacters lives. Shooting for only a few hours a day (almost the entire film was shot at dusk with only natural light) over the course of a year, Malick took hundreds of hours of film and then locked himself away in the editing suite for a further two years. Whittling down the piece to a brief 95 minutes, the end result was a bridge between the stark simplicity of Badlands and the highly philosophical nature of his future projects. It still shares much with hisdebut, though - seen, again, through the eyes of a young girl, Days Of Heaven is another romantic drama, with a bit of added jealousy courtesy of a love triangle thrown into the mix. But Days takes another route here - whilst the scenery in Badlands acts as not much more than a backdrop (albeit a very beautiful backdrop) to the action, in Days (much like The New World) scenery becomes a character in its own right, where changes in light and surroundings directly reflect the changes in character moods and situations - you could say it's his first man versus nature pic. Many complain about its languid pace (which was intentional) but, as the tagline suggested, Days Of Heaven is all about what the audience's senses pick up on. Just a beautiful film to watch.
104 Fail-Safe, Sidney Lumet (1964) 
102 Vamos a Matar Companeros (AKA Companeros), Sergio Corbucci (1970)After years of producing largely gruelling and challenging films that left little in the way of good feelings for the audience, in 1970 Sergio Corbucci decided to throw everything (including the kitchen sink) into a reasonably broad western comedy (as opposed to comedy western), thick with political and social commentary and boasting a drugged up, crow wielding psycho in the shape of Jack Palance. Companeros is Corbucci's The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - huge in scope, high on set-pieces and a vague morality play at its heart. Arguably, amazing as it is, Companeros ruined Corbucci's career as (from the good notices the film received) the director drifted into better paid but otherwise mediocre comedy, usually starring Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer. It's certainly the last great film he ever made and his swift fall from grace (his next film, an Italian comedy costume drama, was and still is a stinker) perhaps goes some way to explaining why he's often ignored in favour of Leone. But Companeros is long overdue some re-appraisal for the great double act of Franco Nero and Tomas Milian, some wonderfully inventive sequences (Nero and Milian buried up to their necks, horses charging at them is a cracker), amazing cinematography and a brilliant Morricone score.
99 Mong ming yuen yeung (On The Run), Alfred Cheung (1988) 
=97 The Mission, Roland Joffe (1986) 
=97 The Killing Fields, Roland Joffe (1984)Another cheat. I REALLY couldn't decide which of The Mission and The Killing was better. I wanted to include both, but it's a level two horse race all the way. So, being that they deal with similar issues, i've put them at equal billing. Uber depressing, but a fine fine film with tragic star Haing S Ngor earning every millimetre of his oscar. Sam Waterston is also on fine form as the New York Times journalist caught up in Pol Pot's campaign of genocide, with Bruce "Whithnail & I" Robinson's cracking screenplay adding so much more to the political meat of the story.
96 Love & Death, Woody Allen (1975)Woody's masterpiece never lets up as we go from stupid joke to high faluting philosophy and back again over the course of a stomach-aching 85 minutes. Perhaps moreso than Annie Hall, Love & Death was the first bridge between the "earlier, funnier ones" and the "later, not so funny ones" filled, as it is, with Sleeper-like slapstick and Manhattan-esque monologues (even if they do, unlike in Manhattan, normally finish on an intentionally silly punchline). Best bits are too numerous to mention, but particular highlights include the black Russian army officer ("god-damn, you LOVE the army, dontchoo!!"), James Tolkan as Napoleon and his double beating each other up, Woody's extended family (his proud father hoping to build on a piece of land no bigger than a dinner plate) and the village idiot convention. Not forgetting brilliant use of Prokofiev's Troika. Classic stuff.
95 Airplane, Jim Abrahams & the Zucker brothers (1980) 
94 Se sei vivo spara (Django, Kill...If You Live, Shoot!), Giulio Questi (1967) 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread