Tormented (Unforgiven, 1992)

One night in a small town, local ranch hands are visiting the local whorehouse. One of the ranch hands becomes enraged with the girl he is with and brutally attacks her, leaving her scarred. When the Sheriff, Little Bill, arrives, he sets the penalties for the ranch hand. The Madam, Strawberry Alice, finds his verdict horribly insufficient. They start to pool their money to hire a gunslinger to kill the man.

Elsewhere, we meet Will Munny. He is a pig farmer with two kids. When a young man calling himself the Scofield comes to try and recruit him for help with killing the ranch hand, Munny explains he does not live that way anymore. His late wife cured him of drinking and his evil ways. But the lure of much needed reward money cause him to rethink his refusal. Bringing along (much to the Kid’s annoyance) his friend Ned, they start to make their way to the town. Meanwhile, Little Bill has discovered the prostitutes’ plan. He makes it clear that nobody will be allowed to kill the ranch hand.

Gene Hackman’s Little Bill is both charming and scary. A former outlaw, he brutalizes an old cohort named English Bob. Bob is followed by a writer who puts his exploits into tabloid books. He starts to be won over by Little Bill, who humiliates English Bob by revealing the truth behind the stories English Bob told the writer.

When the film came out, many people expressed discomfort watching Eastwood struggle to get on a horse or fire a gun. But this is a strength of the film. Unforgiven is an exploration of the effects of violence. As things spiral out of control, Bill finds it harder to fight the darker nature he has put aside all these years.

The Scofield Kid is exuberant and excited, claiming to have killed several men. Munny, of course, sees right through him and has little patience for the Kid’s bravado. Eastwood is not interested in presenting violence as a heroic act. When Munny proves himself to be every bit the frightening killer the Scofield kids expects him to have been, it is tragic. As much as you the viewer may desire to see Little Bill pay a price, it comes at a great cost to Munny.

Personally, I consider Unforgiven to be one of the all time great westerns.

March 26, 2018 0

Oh Oh It’s Magic! PT 3 (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2004)

Continuing to steamroll on, the third film introduces the concept of the wizard prison Azkaban. It appears to be the only prison, and it is a place you do not want to go. The wizarding community is on edge, because of the notorious killer, Sirius Black has escaped. He is infamous among good wizards of his betrayal of his friends James and Lily Potter.

The kids meet their new Professor for the Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Remus Lupin is another mysterious character who appears to harbor a dark secret (but magically, was born with the last name that gives it away). He, however, seems very kind and Harry learns that Lupin was close to his parents.

The film also brings in two important plot devices. One is a cloak of invisibility (which will figure greatly later in the series) and the other is the Marauder’s Map. The map shows everyone who exists in the school and where they are. When Harry notices a person on the map believed to be dead, it kicks off a mission to determine what is going on.

A large focus of the story is Lupin teaching the kids to conjure a defensive spell known as a Patronis. The Patronis allows defense against mystical creatures and in this film, that is primarily the Dementors. Looking like a grim reaper, the Dementor is an Azkaban guard. They can literally suck the joy and will to live from your body, leaving the victim in torment.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron uncover information hinting that Black may not be who everyone claims he is. The story culminates in Harry and Hermione pulling a magical stunt to pull off some rescues and save the day.

Columbus stepped away as director for this film Warner Brothers brought in Alfonso Cuarón. This turns out to have been a good choice, as instead of being dedicated to forcing the novel into a couple of hours, he (and screenwriter Steve Kloves) focus on the tone of the story. Azkaban represented a turn towards darker themes in the books, and the film matches that.

Gary Oldman and David Thewlis are welcome additions to the cast, with Oldman turning in a manic performance, reflecting the decade or so of imprisonment. But the biggest change occurred because between Chamber of Secrets and this film, Richard Harris passed away. Harris was just about 70 when the first film was being made, and he did seem quite fragile in the first two films. This played into the warmness of Dumbledore found in the books. He was replaced by Michael Gambon (Ian McKellen was offered the role, but turned it down on the reasons that he thought it would be risky trying to play another iconic character after playing Gandalf and felt it inappropriate to take over for Harris who had considered McKellen a “dreadful” actor). Gambon’s approach to Dumbledore is very different from Harris. His Albus is a bit tougher and sterner. This gets tempered out as the series progresses. Part of this difference is likely due to Gambon never reading the books.

The visuals of the film stand out in this film, with far better CGI than the previous films.

After two decent films, the Prisoner of Azkaban represents a step up for the franchise.

November 17, 2017 0

Oh Oh It’s Magic! PT 2 (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 2002)

The first film was a huge success, and so a follow-up was certain. When the film opens, his guardians, the Dursleys, have given Harry an actual bedroom. But they also put bars on the window. A strange creature calling himself Dobby (and reveals himself to be a house elf) tries to convince Harry to not go to his second year at Hogwarts. But when the Weasley boys show up with a flying car, they break Harry out and get on their way. But after Ron and Harry are blocked from the magical platform to get to the train for Hogwarts, they take the flying car.

Once at Hogwarts, the Harry, Ron and Hermione discover a mystery in the past of Hogwarts. The school is full of passages and hidden rooms. They discover cryptic references to the Chamber of Secrets and a past for Hagrid.

Like the first film, this one tries to cram in as much from the book as possible. It also unravels more about the past of Lord Voldemort. The film introduces Gilderoy Lockhart (played with flamboyant revelry by Kenneth Branagh). Lockhart gives insight into the world of the celebrity wizard. He is beloved for his books detailing his exploits fighting evil wizards, fantastic beasts and all around heroism. And yet, there is something about him…he seems…rather inept.

Certain characters offer a window into some of the darker aspects of the Wizarding community. Specifically the concept of the House Elf. What we find in the film is that the world of wizards has pretty much enslaved elves. The elves are abused and cower before their masters. There may be wizards who treat their house elves well. But this is never really shown in the films or the books. In the books, Hogwarts uses house elves, though the movies shy away from this.

The visuals are improved in this film, and Columbus is clearly enamored with the world of Harry Potter, as he tries to fill the screen with as many visual queues from the books as possible.

Again, it is the adult cast that shines. Chamber of secrets will certainly charm many fans of the franchise and will likely entertain general audiences as well. It’s die-hard faithfulness to the source can still get in the way of this film, but overall, it makes for an enjoyable watch.

November 16, 2017 0

Oh Oh It’s Magic! Pt 1 (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 2001)

Every so often there is a major phenomenon. And for the late 1990’s? That was Harry Potter. In a series of seven books, J.K. Rowling broke records with a tale of a young boy wizard. Kids were showing up to midnight release parties for the latest books and dressing up as the characters for conventions.

A movie was pretty much inevitable. They brought in Chris Columbus, writer of youth favorites like the Goonies and Gremlims and director of Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire. He, screenwriter Steve Kloves, and Rowling worked to craft a film that “captured the magic” of the books.

Young Harry Potter has grown up with his aunt, uncle, and cousin unaware of a big secret about himself. The Dursleys shower love on their son Dudley, all the while with holding any decent treatment of Harry. They keep him in a compartment under the stairs, rather than a proper bedroom. On his eleventh Birthday he is greeted by Hagrid, a giant of a man and a representative of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You see, Harry’s parents were wizards, and he has the gene.

Harry discovers that, in fact, he is a famous wizard. When he was a baby, an evil wizard, so evil in fact he is only referred to As He Who Walks Behind the Rows-wait, He Who Must Not Be Named– was trying to take over the wizarding world and enslave the non-magical world. There was a prophesy about young Harry, and He Who Must Not Be Named (Actual Name; Voldemort) was determined to prevent it from coming to pass by killing Harry and his parents. While he was successful in killing Harry’s parents, when he attempted to kill Harry, the spell rebounded and killed Voldemort and leaving Harry with a lightning bolt scar.

Harry is brought to Hogwarts, where he makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and also makes some enemies, primarily in fellow student Draco Malfoy. Malfoy’s family were actually Death Eaters (members of Voldemort’s cult). They are strict and cruel aristocratic types. Ron comes from a large wizarding family and Hermione is actually of non-magical lineage (some cruelly call her a Mudblood).

The Sorcerer’s Stone follows Harry’s first year as he solves a mystery in which there seems to be a unique magical object that the headmaster is hiding. Between Harry, Hermione and Ron’s quest, we see Harry learning about the differences (both good and bad) to be found in the world of witches and wizards. He gets guidance from the kind hearted Headmaster Dumbledore and faces adverse treatment from Professor Snape.

The cast in the film is what really stands out in the film. While the kids are not heavily impressive (which is understandable, most of them are in their first or second role), every adult role seems carefully chosen. Richard Harris is terrific as the soft spoken Dumbledore. Maggie Smith is excellent as good but stern Professor McGonagall. The late Alan Rickman is terrific in the role of the grim and tough Professor Snape, the potions professor who aspires to teach the Defense Against the Dark Arts Class. But even small roles, such as the ghost Nearly Headless Nick are given to established talent like John Cleese.

The visual effects are all over the place. There is a sequence in which Harry is on the shoulders of a troll, and it is an embarrassingly low budget looking like video game scene. This might not seem fair, but this came out the same year as the Fellowship of the Ring, and it is hard to ignore that the Sorcerer’s Stone can fall so short. Most of the effects are certainly good, but these big moments falling short of the weakest effects in the Lord of the Rings hurts the film.

The movie makes a tremendous effort to bring the books to vibrant life onscreen. And in a general sense, it does pull that off. The movie really does bring the world of witches and wizards to life. The use of spells, the moving pictures, the castle ghosts. In fact, it sometimes feels like they were so dedicated to filling in as much information from the book that they forgot the story is more important. Certainly, the plot is there from the book. But the attention to detail actually can get distracting.

Fans of the book are ultimately going to be satisfied. It is a fun movie for those of us that enjoyed the books. But it never really comes to a point where it can stand on it’s own without the books.

November 15, 2017 0