When I was a mere lad, growing up in a log cabin, I watched a lot of WGN, Chicago's very own Channel 9. They ran tons of movies, which I liked. I remember starting to watch PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID, getting bored and turning it off.
Ah, the folly of youth.
Lately, I've been digging into Peckinpah, catching up on titles I'd always meant to see and didn't, and other titles I'd seen before and wanted to revisit. The other day I watched THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND. It's a great movie, but it's also exactly the kind of thriller that doesn't quite hold together... As soon as the movie was over, I thought, "WOW." And about five minutes later, it was, "Wait a minute. Why did he...? And how did they...? And what was up with that thing with the thing...?"
Last night I watched PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID, and I can now say I have a new title in my personal favorite Westerns of all time. Writing, acting, directing... man, the editing is a huge part of what makes this movie great. (Strong editing is actually a through-line I've noticed in all of Peckinpah's movies... it bears investigation).
The story of these two characters is a microcosm of the story of the West. Is Pat Garrett selling out, or growing up? It seems to depend on the situation, and who you ask. Is Billy the last outlaw hero of the American frontier, or a man-child who'd rather go down guns-a-blazin' because he can't think of anything else to do? Again, it could go either way.
The opening scene is laden with an amazing amount of tension, but also does a swift and strong job of drawing this fulcrum relationship. It's masterful. And it maintains that level throughout -- there wasn't a single clunker scene for me.
I loved this movie. I learned from it, both as a film dude and also on a personal level.
THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY is still my favorite Western of all time, followed by THE UNFORGIVEN. There are a bunch of others I sincerely enjoy, but none of them caught me like this one, so it's safe to say PG&BTK is my number three.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Bearwatch Bulletin September 24, 2009
According to this article, a bear attacked a group of tourists in Japan.
The article quotes an expert in saying it's unusual for them to attack humans. Yeah, unusual... until they FUCKING DO.
The article quotes an expert in saying it's unusual for them to attack humans. Yeah, unusual... until they FUCKING DO.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell Bastards
In some ways, I am an extraordinarily boring person. I am as predictable as the dawn. What I'm referring to is the fact that, if you entitle a movie GO TO HELL BASTARDS, I'm going to watch it, even if you stick DETECTIVE BUREAU 2-3 in front of the cool part.
I once rented a movie called DEATH MACHINE based purely on the title. Shit, you could call a cologne DEATH MACHINE, and I'd buy it. Luckily, it was a pretty good movie. The titular creature is a gorilla-shaped robot with a bear trap for a mouth. Fun times.
DETECTIVE BUREAU 2-3: GO TO HELL BASTARDS is a Japanese yakuza movie from 1963 directed by Seijun Suzuki. I love Japanese movies from the '60s, and I'm a big fan of Seijun Suzuki. I'm a flat-out geek for BRANDED TO KILL. A couple of years ago, I wrote a script called THE MISS MEN, and BRANDED TO KILL was a huge influence.
GO TO HELL BASTARDS isn't nearly as cool as the title, but it still has its charms. It stars Jo Shishido, who was Seijun Suzuki's go-to guy during their peak, his DeNiro to Suzuki's Scorsese.
Not long ago, I watched an interview with Suzuki in which he talked about how he'd gotten sick of cranking out programmers and, to break out of that rut, he decided to shoot something really off-the-wall and idiosyncratic. That movie was BRANDED TO KILL, and it got him fired from his studio contract.
Apparently, GO TO HELL BASTARDS was the kind of movie he was sick of doing. It's a by-the-numbers programmer, hitting every tired beat of the infiltration movie. Sometimes a film can rise above its programmer status by a high level of execution... for example, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE fits the same paradigm, but it's still fucking great. This one is... okay.
It opens well. A bunch of yakuza buy a truckload of stolen weapons from a crooked soldier who's stationed at a U.S. Army base (which reminded me of BUFFALO SOLDIERS). Another gang shows up, a massive gunfight erupts, and gang#2 makes off with the guns. It looks like it's gonna turn into an all-out war.
Jo Shishida plays a private detective who hears about this on the radio, and sees an angle for making some money off the cops with this case. He shows up and volunteers to infiltrate the gang. The cops have this one guy locked up, who might be a key to solving the case, but there are a hundred armed yakuza outside the station, just waiting for this dude to get let out so they can gun him down. This is a cool scenario... it's a little PRECINCT 13, though the yakuza never attack the station itself.
Jo fakes them out, and helps the guy escape. In exchange, he says he wants to be a part of the gang. The dude's like, sure... but the rest the gang isn't so trusting. This was the best part of the movie for me. I like smart bad guys, and they give Jo a very thorough background check. In fact, they never quite let up, and eventually figure him out long after stupider people would have gotten lazy and given up. Jo keeps upping the ante, and they keep checking and double-checking, asking questions and following up on leads. In a way, they're almost like detectives themselves. It's cool.
Suzuki seems to like song and dance numbers. I've noticed a tendency in his films to just cut to some girls dancing in a disco or something, looking for any excuse to shove one in. I'm not sure if this was a studio mandate, or if he just likes 'em. In GO TO HELL BASTARDS, there are several. The coolest one has Jo meeting the gang at a night club. But... oh shit, the star of the floor show is Jo's ex-girlfriend! He knows she's gonna blow his cover as soon as the song ends. So to keep the song going, Jo jumps up and starts singing and dancing along with her. The yakuza aren't sure what to make of this. Even better: the girl changes the lyrics and starts singing about their relationship, how she loves him despite his flaws. Jo counter-sings, trying to explain what's going on to her without being so obvious about it that he tips his hat to the gangsters. It's a clever scene, and fun.
Speaking of De Niro/Scorsese, I just re-watched AFTER HOURS, which is about as brilliant as a black comedy can get. Watching that and GO TO HELL BASTARDS back-to-back, I noticed that both directors use dynamic camera movements through scenes in a very similar way. It's reminiscent of a more classic style of cinema, and made me think of Hitchcock. These days, it seems we more often see cuts instead of movement. I don't mind cuts, but I prefer the latter... it's a more dynamic way to construct a scene.
So there are things to enjoy in GO TO HELL BASTARDS, though the movie doesn't totally live up to the potential of that title. I liked this movie, but I love BRANDED TO KILL.
I once rented a movie called DEATH MACHINE based purely on the title. Shit, you could call a cologne DEATH MACHINE, and I'd buy it. Luckily, it was a pretty good movie. The titular creature is a gorilla-shaped robot with a bear trap for a mouth. Fun times.
DETECTIVE BUREAU 2-3: GO TO HELL BASTARDS is a Japanese yakuza movie from 1963 directed by Seijun Suzuki. I love Japanese movies from the '60s, and I'm a big fan of Seijun Suzuki. I'm a flat-out geek for BRANDED TO KILL. A couple of years ago, I wrote a script called THE MISS MEN, and BRANDED TO KILL was a huge influence.
GO TO HELL BASTARDS isn't nearly as cool as the title, but it still has its charms. It stars Jo Shishido, who was Seijun Suzuki's go-to guy during their peak, his DeNiro to Suzuki's Scorsese.
Not long ago, I watched an interview with Suzuki in which he talked about how he'd gotten sick of cranking out programmers and, to break out of that rut, he decided to shoot something really off-the-wall and idiosyncratic. That movie was BRANDED TO KILL, and it got him fired from his studio contract.
Apparently, GO TO HELL BASTARDS was the kind of movie he was sick of doing. It's a by-the-numbers programmer, hitting every tired beat of the infiltration movie. Sometimes a film can rise above its programmer status by a high level of execution... for example, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE fits the same paradigm, but it's still fucking great. This one is... okay.
It opens well. A bunch of yakuza buy a truckload of stolen weapons from a crooked soldier who's stationed at a U.S. Army base (which reminded me of BUFFALO SOLDIERS). Another gang shows up, a massive gunfight erupts, and gang#2 makes off with the guns. It looks like it's gonna turn into an all-out war.
Jo Shishida plays a private detective who hears about this on the radio, and sees an angle for making some money off the cops with this case. He shows up and volunteers to infiltrate the gang. The cops have this one guy locked up, who might be a key to solving the case, but there are a hundred armed yakuza outside the station, just waiting for this dude to get let out so they can gun him down. This is a cool scenario... it's a little PRECINCT 13, though the yakuza never attack the station itself.
Jo fakes them out, and helps the guy escape. In exchange, he says he wants to be a part of the gang. The dude's like, sure... but the rest the gang isn't so trusting. This was the best part of the movie for me. I like smart bad guys, and they give Jo a very thorough background check. In fact, they never quite let up, and eventually figure him out long after stupider people would have gotten lazy and given up. Jo keeps upping the ante, and they keep checking and double-checking, asking questions and following up on leads. In a way, they're almost like detectives themselves. It's cool.
Suzuki seems to like song and dance numbers. I've noticed a tendency in his films to just cut to some girls dancing in a disco or something, looking for any excuse to shove one in. I'm not sure if this was a studio mandate, or if he just likes 'em. In GO TO HELL BASTARDS, there are several. The coolest one has Jo meeting the gang at a night club. But... oh shit, the star of the floor show is Jo's ex-girlfriend! He knows she's gonna blow his cover as soon as the song ends. So to keep the song going, Jo jumps up and starts singing and dancing along with her. The yakuza aren't sure what to make of this. Even better: the girl changes the lyrics and starts singing about their relationship, how she loves him despite his flaws. Jo counter-sings, trying to explain what's going on to her without being so obvious about it that he tips his hat to the gangsters. It's a clever scene, and fun.
Speaking of De Niro/Scorsese, I just re-watched AFTER HOURS, which is about as brilliant as a black comedy can get. Watching that and GO TO HELL BASTARDS back-to-back, I noticed that both directors use dynamic camera movements through scenes in a very similar way. It's reminiscent of a more classic style of cinema, and made me think of Hitchcock. These days, it seems we more often see cuts instead of movement. I don't mind cuts, but I prefer the latter... it's a more dynamic way to construct a scene.
So there are things to enjoy in GO TO HELL BASTARDS, though the movie doesn't totally live up to the potential of that title. I liked this movie, but I love BRANDED TO KILL.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Nick Redfern Versus the Chupacabra
My man Nick Redfern -- author of THREE MEN SEEKING MONSTERS, and one of the titular three men -- got interviewed about the mysterious goat sucker.
Check it out here.
Check it out here.
Ants Love Chicken!
Would you like to know how I discovered this fun factoid?
I was on my way back from the gym. I'd put in a lot of cardio, I was feeling good, but I was also hungry. I stopped at a light, looked to my left, and noticed an El Pollo Loco. Hmmmm...
I scored an eight piece, took it home, stuck it in the fridge and wrote for a while. Two hours later I was running out of steam, and REALLY hungry. I closed up shop, threw in a DVD and ate the hell out of that chicken. Feeling lazy, I left the bones in the box on my kitchen counter. I fell asleep while watching the movie.
I woke up the next morning and found hundreds of tiny, black ants attacking the chicken bones. They'd formed a bucket brigade leading from the chicken, down the side of the counter, all the way along the edge off the wall to my bathroom, where the streamed in and out of a nail-sized hole in the bathroom door frame - the hidden gate to the ant kingdom.
Ants don't really bother me, so I didn't freak out. The box of chicken was still in the Pollo Loco plastic bag. I picked it up by the handles and walked it out to the Dumpster. Chicken all gone. Sure, there were several hundred ants who'd been separated from their brethren, but war is hell. Maybe they can make their way back home a la The Incredible Journey.
Now... most people would sweep away the line of ants or spray them with poison or something. Purely out of curiosity, I decided to leave them alone. I wanted to find out how long it would take for the message to make its way back to Ant Central Command that the chicken had vanished.
The answer: a full day. Ants aren't quite as smart as nature shows make them out to be.
Man... it's always something in my pad. First it was black widows, then it was spindlies, then it was a mice, and now it's ants. I can't wait until I'm able to live in an apartment that doesn't have its own ecosystem. I suppose in one sense it's a reminder that, despite my urban environment, I'm still a part of nature, the circle of life, hakuna matata, all of that. On the other hand, I have no illusions about what would have happened if I'd left the chicken on the counter instead of in the fridge while I wrote. At least the spindlies never tried to eat my dinner.
I was on my way back from the gym. I'd put in a lot of cardio, I was feeling good, but I was also hungry. I stopped at a light, looked to my left, and noticed an El Pollo Loco. Hmmmm...
I scored an eight piece, took it home, stuck it in the fridge and wrote for a while. Two hours later I was running out of steam, and REALLY hungry. I closed up shop, threw in a DVD and ate the hell out of that chicken. Feeling lazy, I left the bones in the box on my kitchen counter. I fell asleep while watching the movie.
I woke up the next morning and found hundreds of tiny, black ants attacking the chicken bones. They'd formed a bucket brigade leading from the chicken, down the side of the counter, all the way along the edge off the wall to my bathroom, where the streamed in and out of a nail-sized hole in the bathroom door frame - the hidden gate to the ant kingdom.
Ants don't really bother me, so I didn't freak out. The box of chicken was still in the Pollo Loco plastic bag. I picked it up by the handles and walked it out to the Dumpster. Chicken all gone. Sure, there were several hundred ants who'd been separated from their brethren, but war is hell. Maybe they can make their way back home a la The Incredible Journey.
Now... most people would sweep away the line of ants or spray them with poison or something. Purely out of curiosity, I decided to leave them alone. I wanted to find out how long it would take for the message to make its way back to Ant Central Command that the chicken had vanished.
The answer: a full day. Ants aren't quite as smart as nature shows make them out to be.
Man... it's always something in my pad. First it was black widows, then it was spindlies, then it was a mice, and now it's ants. I can't wait until I'm able to live in an apartment that doesn't have its own ecosystem. I suppose in one sense it's a reminder that, despite my urban environment, I'm still a part of nature, the circle of life, hakuna matata, all of that. On the other hand, I have no illusions about what would have happened if I'd left the chicken on the counter instead of in the fridge while I wrote. At least the spindlies never tried to eat my dinner.
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