Here’s $1; Don’t go spending it all at once

I got me one of these……….

I’ll be in splints for the rest of my life.

Good thing I can still use my thumbs.

Audiophile: The Skids – The saints are coming
Off my shelf: Golden Fox – Wilbur Smith
Midday Matinee: The Bridge on the River Kwai [1957]
Starring: William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Alec Guiness and Sessue Hayakawa
Directed by: David Lean

Knight in shining Hummer

‘The Dark Knight’ premièred a couple of weeks ago.

The theatre ticket was worth every penny.

Films based on the Batman character have been around for quite a bit. I remember watching my first ones in the early-90’s with ‘Batman’ (1989) with Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson playing The Joker. Keaton went on to reprise his role as ‘bats’ in ‘Batman Returns’ (1992) Danny DeVito was cast as a pitiful penguin in that one. Both of these films were directed by Tim Burton.

‘Batman Forever’ (1995) saw Val Kilmer cast as the caped crusader probably setting him up for his role in ‘The Saint’ in 1997. Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey weighed in as Two-Face/Harvey Dent and the Riddler respectively.  Burton produced this film and handed the directors reins to Joel Schumacher. It was swiftly followed by ‘Batman & Robin’ (1997) with George Clooney as Batman and Chris O’Donnell as Robin. In what was an indicator of the studio’s haste to milk the franchise dry, the Batgirl was introduced as Alicia Silverstone and suddenly the Batcave had become rather crowded. Arnold Schwarzenegger ’s performance as Mr. Freeze left me cold and I remain more attracted to than afraid of Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy. Robin gets to kiss her in the film and it doesn’t seem to be as bad as they’d like us to believe, I was actually envious of him.

Up to this point the Batman movies just sucked. They were infused with artificial darkness in an effort to  capture the feel of batman and bring the comic-book hero alive on screen but rather than focus on bringing out the batman mythology; why he is who he is and why even without superpowers he’s still as big as superman (maybe bigger through  Frank Miller’s looking glass). Christopher Nolan must’ve been woken up by the smell of the coffee from the Marvel film sets for both the X-Men and Spiderman franchises which successfully used film to narrate the comic book stories rather than attempt to directly lift the action from the pages and animate it for the big screen.

We owe Bryan Singer (X-men) , Sam Raimi (Spiderman) a debt of gratitude. They clearly understood that it is silly to try and tell a story the same way using media formats that are as different as the Comic book and Film. Even Robert Rodrigues’ Sin City (2005) which closely mimicked the tone of Frank Miller’s Graphic Novels still truncated most of the storylines. Miller himself took certain liberties in the telling of the battle of Thermopylae in his Graphic Novel ‘300′. Zack Snyder went on to do the same in the film adaptation in 2006.

That being said, Nolan’s ‘Batman Begins’ (2005) was like the return of the prodigal son. After years of wandering in the wastes of mediocrity, the bats had come home to roost.  It is the celluloid equivalent of the paradigm shift in the public perception of Batman that was triggered by Frank Miller’s ‘Return of the Dark Knight’ in 1986 and subsequently followed by his efforts in ‘Batman: Year One’ and the 3 volumes of ‘DK2′ . In ‘Batman Begins’ it is not Christian Bale, or even Bruce Wayne that hold centre stage; it is Batman. The character for the first time on film transcended the actor who played him. Bale opened a window into his mind. We struggled with him as he made difficult choices, clumsily fell off balconies with him in his first  attempts at playing vigilante and in that way we begun to care about the Batman.

In ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008), Nolan and Bale pick up probably light years away from where they had left off. The filmaking remains faithful to delivering a believable Batman but it succeeds in doing this even more than ‘Batman Begins’. What this film delivers in spades is a villain so villainous that he got a standing ovation at the end. The late Heath Ledger is a revelation in his performance as The Joker in this picture. The only thing he had in common with the Jack Nicholson interpretation was the face make-up and even that was far fetched.

Ledger was completely immersed in the character bringing out a worthy adversary to the Batman. This Joker was as twisted as he was brilliant, as complex a character as he was depraved. The opening sequence where the audience is introduced to him in a bank heist is beautifully shot but as the film progresses it becomes evident that this was only a partial introduction. The many layers of his personality are revealed incrementally, each darker than the last. Unlike his uni-dimensional calling cards, The Joker’s psyche has infinite dimensions. He isn’t in pursuit of ends as pedestrian as cash and he demonstrates this by setting fire to quite a bit of it in the film. No, the Joker’s after something more, something bigger, something less tangible. Even I’m still not  sure what it is but I think it maybe he wants to steal our hope and belief in the good that is in us.

He places Batman, Harvey Dent, the Police, the people of Gotham City and ultimately us in such diabolical moral dilemmas that it is plausible that he is Lucifer-lite. He is frightening in his compassion, giving all his victims just enough choice to make decisions that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. In one scene, he kills a mob boss and tosses them a broken billiard cue to the 3 bodyguards telling them his organisation has a vacancy for only one – leaving them to fight it out among themselves. but what is the Joker without the Jokes? In the midst of all the mayhem, he is still a funny character. In a nod to the modern-day terrorist, he crashes in on a mob meeting rigged to explode and goes on to make them an offer they cannot refuse. In another scene, he blows up a hospital he has given notice to be evacuated but when it doesn’t go according to plan, we see him seemingly perplexed by his faulty remote detonator only a minute later to have a mighty explosion rock the hospital and the Joker hurry guiltily away as though he had nothing to do with it.

It is good that there were no Robins and sundry characters to distract us from the Batman/Joker dichotomy. The film successfully delved into ethical questions we struggle with in some way everyday. Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox meets attempted blackmail with a thinly veiled threat and then turns around to conscientiously object to Batman’s misappropriation of sonar technology to eavesdrop on the people of Gotham City. Michael Caine’s Alfred the butler secretly makes an ethically ambiguous choice that allows Bruce Wayne to go on being Batman and is the strong shoulders upon which our disillusioned and despairing  hero leans upon. Even Lt. James Gordon isn’t above a little deception in the pursuit of justice and we see the political considerations that shape the thinking of the mascara-wearing Mayor of Gotham City.

There were a few things about the film that I disliked. Batman sounds as though he’s just survived a garrotting and is in need of throat lozenges. I was afraid that if Bruce Wayne stayed in the Batman guise for too long, he may develop laryngitis. The transmutation of Harvey Dent into Two-Face was a bit too fast for me. It takes some doing for paragons of virtue to cross over to the dark side. Anakin Skywalker needed 3 episodes of the Star Wars films before he finally became Darth Vader (albeit they traced back to all the way to his childhood).  A few hints on the demons that Harvey kept locked up inside himself would’ve made the slide into insanity easier to understand.

I tip my visor to Messrs. Nolan, Bale and Oldman. I bow to Bob Kane who created batman, Frank Miller who revived him, the late Heath Ledger whose Joker made us believe in Batman again and all the other people who rescued the damsel in distress that is the Batman story.

You are the true dark knights.

Audiophile: The Killers – Shadowplay
Off my shelf: Batman; A Death in the Family
Midday Matinee: The Dark Knight (2008)
Starring: Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Maggie Gyllenhall
Directed by:Christopher Nolan

 

 

Stubs of Heaven

‘Casablanca‘ was running on TCM the other night and like a moth drawn to the flame, I stayed up to watch it – again. I know if there has been a film that has been worn thin by too many screenings, references, allusions to, special edition packages, parodies, reviews, commentary, analysis, short-listing and so on, ‘Casablanca’ would be it. I have watched it over 12 times; in b/w  & technicolour, in a cinema, on cable & regular television, on DVD and also noisily projected on a white sheet tacked to a barn door.  Suffice to say I know virtually every line in the script by heart. I have read up on it, had posters of it, listened to the soundtrack and generally done those things that creepy people obsessed by film generally do (except hop on a motorcycle and with a camera strapped round one’s neck, ride down film stars like a post-modern John Wayne lassoing a wayward steer).

The point in my weakness to ‘Casablanca‘ is that I simply love old films in general and Humphrey Bogart’s in particular. The cliché “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” couldn’t be more true. Classic film, unhampered by colour, special effects and juvenile actors bred on reality TV shows relied mainly on strong story lines and fantastic dialogue to carry them along.

Well, ‘Casablanca‘ inspired me to dig out the other ‘Bogie’ films I had around and mine them for memorable moments. From bit parts in ‘Angels with dirty faces’ [1938] starring another screen great, James Cagney to the cynical Sam Spade in ‘The Maltese Falcon’ [1941] and other memorable roles in ‘The Petrified Forest ‘[1936], ‘They drive by night’ [1940] ‘San Quentin’ [1937] ‘Black Legion’ [1937] ‘The African Queen’ [1951] ‘Key Largo’ [1948] ‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’ (1948) ‘The Barefoot Contessa’ [1954] Ernest Hemingway ‘To have and to have not’ [1944] ‘High Sierra’ [1941] ‘Dark Victory [1939] ‘The roaring Twenties’ [1939] and ‘The Oklahoma Kid’ [1939].

You could say I binged on Bogart.

The films also have loads of unforgettable supporting actors & actresses. Lauren Bacall’s sultry screen siren leaves the competition smouldering only equalled by a Peter Lorre so slimy it’s a wonder how he managed to hold any lines. Sydney Greenstreet’s carefree confidence in his size and ability to dispense casual violence like cheap confectionery is masterful only due to Bogart’s ability to take it. A motley crew of alcoholics and idealists serve to play off each other in not always believable but highly entertaining plot lines that have always had me paying more attention to what they are saying as opposed to they are doing.

All this without (I stand to be corrected) a single swear-word.

Sample some of the lines that have always made me smile

‘Casablanca’ [1942]

Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart): “I don’t object to a parasite, only to a cut-rate one” – to Ugarte (Peter Lorre)

Major Strasser: You give him (Rick Blaine) credit for too much cleverness. My impression was that he’s just another blundering American.
Captain Renault: We mustn’t underestimate American blundering. I was with them when they blundered into Berlin in 1918.

Capt. Renault: What on Earth brought you to Casablanca?
Rick Blaine: My health, I came to Casablanca for the waters.
Capt. Renault: The waters? What waters? We’re in the desert!
Rick Blaine: I was misinformed.

Senor Ferrari: (To Rick Blaine) Might as well be frank, Monsieur. It would take a miracle to get you out of Casablanca, and the Germans have outlawed miracles.

‘To Have and to Have Not’ [1944]

Capt. Renard: “What is you nationality?
Harry Morgan: I’m a drunkard

Slim (Lauren Bacall): I’d walk home if it wasn’t for all that water- to Harry ‘Steve’ Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) when he asks why she hasn’t gone back to America

(Slim kisses Steve)
Steve: What did you do that for?
Slim: I’ve been wondering if I’d like it.
Steve: What’s the decision?
Slim: I don’t know yet.
(She kisses him again, this time he kisses her back)
Slim: It’s even better when you help.

Slim: You know how to whistle don’t you Steve? You just put your lips together and blow

Slim: I’ve been mad ever since I met you
Steve: Most people are

Amazing.

Audiophile: The Clash – Rock the casbah
Off my shelf: The ultimate racing car book – David Burgess-Wise
Midday Matinee: The Appointment [1969]
Starring: Omar Sharif, Anouk Aimee
Directed by: Sidney Lumet

Seeing in the Dark

I have been addicted to the BBC world service ever since my dad taught me how to tune his little shortwave radio. Back in those days things were a little tense in our country and shortwave radios were considered to be some sort of contraband or other. The government then had this thing about controlling the media and allowing only the state broadcaster to air anything. Well, as most of the country asphyxiated in the communication vacuum, my dad snuck in his little radio from an official trip abroad and opened the world to me. We’d spend time patiently turning the little knobs, searching patiently for the frequencies that seemed to always keep changing, our ears tuned to the whining and droning and screeching of foreign stations as we surfed the bandwidths. Then, we’d hear it. A scratchy voice in a faraway place, the familiar plummy tones of newscasters in faraway Bush House, London and after a bit of fiddling with the telescopic aerial, extending it and turning it this way and that, taking up all sorts of awkward positions, we’d have the signal locked in and we’d settle in to listen to the programmes on air.

And what programmes they were; news about exotic lands – nearly all of them in conflict (I liked news of Lebanon, Palestine & Israel, Iran & Iraq the most and……a bit of apartheid South Africa too), Music – British music charts and some classical concerts too, Sport and so on but what we liked most though was hearing news of our country from a different perspective; a change from the self congratulatory tripe that we were force-fed by the state broadcaster that inevitably begun with an update on the movements (including of the bowel) of His Excellency the President – the only thing he excelled at was taking us to the brink.

It kind of felt naughty and nice that my dad took the time to induct me into what I then thought was a world of crime. I’d go to school in the mornings and secretly smile at my ‘felonies’, scorning the mundane lives of the other kids’. I reveled in my rap sheet, savouring how good it felt to be bad.

Well time have changed and so has our country (for the better), one can now have a blog, let alone a shortwave radio and the BBC’s World service (for the worse) there’s not much that’s distinct about it anymore; it’s almost all news now with a sprinkling of sports, documentaries and cultural programming. Still, I tune in fairly frequently if not for the guilty pleasures then in honour of my dad who passed away all too soon. For from time to time on the rare occasion, the world service still can serve up a gem.

I sleep best with my radio on tuned to the world service at low volume. I find the low tones of the presenters comforting and sometimes boring enough to induce sleep. I also think that I can also get myself updated on events around the world subliminally and on the odd occasion, the programming does make its way into my dreams. Anyway, on Sunday morning 4^th November 2007 at 0100 GMT, I found myself awake just in time for the world drama programme and what I heard blew me away.

It was a radio play called “Seeing in the Dark” by a Canadian called Gordon Pengilly and though the story itself was nothing unique, (it had hints of Tarantino’s circular storylines, a protagonist who like Michael Corleone, cannot escape a world of violence, seedy needy sex to spice thing up a bit, a world that’s moved on since he went to prison and so on…..) the writing was absolutely phenomenal. Mr. Pengilly characters slung words together in unhappy harmony to paint virtual canvasses that became masterpieces in my mind. Descriptions so laconic yet overwhelming in colour and texture and atmosphere. I could smell the sweat on the woman on the bus ride from the prison.

I couldn’t sleep afterwards and I listened in again at 0800H GMT for the re-run.

I wasn’t disappointed.

I looked for the script on the internet, just to read it again for myself and I couldn’t find anything other than a blog entry from a gentleman called roGER in Ipswich, UK http://rogers-rants.blogspot.com/ who was experiencing more or less the same thing I was……at the same time.

The world service still does connect people apparently, after all roGER and I did see the same thing……………in the dark.

Paradise Regained

Here’s somewhere my girlfriend and I went on holiday. We were virtually all alone. We liked it alot. Can’t wait to go back. No, I’m not telling where it is.

Ps. Sorry the photos are so low-res, I forgot my camera and had to use the dinky one on the mobile phone.