All Around the World

Howdy!

            After watching a clip in class of Spartacus, I borrowed film from my pal to watch during the week and it’s an epic story of tragedy and triumph, which is really entertaining and compelling.  Directed by Stanley Kubrick, Spartacus is the story of the rebellious Thracian Spartacus, born and raised a slave who is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus.  After weeks of being trained to kill for the arena, Spartacus turns on his possessors and leads the other slaves in a rebellion.  As the rebels move from town to town, their numbers expand as escaped slaves join their ranks. Under the leadership of Spartacus, they make their way to southern Italy, where they hope to cross the sea and return to their homes.                                     Meanwhile, in Rome, the slave revolt has become a deciding factor in the power struggle between two senators: the republican Gracchus and the militarist Crassus each of whom sees the fortunes of the rebellion as the key to his own rise to power or humiliating defeat.  As the two statesmen attempt to hamper and manipulate the rebels for their own benefit, Spartacus and his followers press on towards freedom.

The film belongs to Stanley Kubrick, who handles scenes of intimacy superbly and his attention to detail illustrates the violence, brutality and corruption of both the masters and the slaves.  The acting is decent, Kirk Douglas gives a powerful portrait of a complex character that is inspirational yet gentle and kind, who grows over the course of the story.  Laurence Olivier was wonderfully subtle and layered performance as Crassus with Charles Laughton as a brilliant counterpart as his no-nonsense rival Gracchus.  Tony Curtis is also calm and collective as Antoninus, the slave who becomes Spartacus's right hand man and Peter Ustinov does a fine job as the sleazy Batiatus.  Jean Simmons plays Varinia, Spartacus love interest.                            

The movie is long (think 3 hours 20 mins), but it is worthwhile watching, especially the last decisive battle scene between the slave army and Roman legions. The orchestration of thousands of extras in the battle scenes was magnificently staged.  The extras playing the Roman legionnaires marched in formation so precisely and the whole formation moved very gracefully.  Compare that to ‘Troy’ or ‘Gladiator’, probably special effects would be used to capture the same scene.  Another scene, which is brilliant, is when the victorious Crassus, who wants to know who Spartacus is amongst the walking wounded, but one by one his army stand up and declare "I am Spartacus!"  That scene is just stands out for me and shows the commitment of the rebels towards Spartacus.                                     

The ending scene, where Varinia confronts Spartacus as he hangs on the cross is a passionate scene played with raw emotion.  Spartacus knows he's lost and even though his wife and son are free, everyone else is no better off than when he started.  Maybe even be worse off, but it's this final defeat that ultimately makes Spartacus stand out, it doesn't provide us with miracles; every victory is hard earned.   Like ‘Gladiator’, Spartacus is the courage of one man who defies the Roman Empire and it’s a film, which has stood the test of time and will for many years to come. 

 Cheers

Slide Away

Howdy!

Over the weekend I rented out ‘Black Water’.  An Australian independent movie about a true story of a pregnant woman Gracie, her husband Adam and Gracie’s younger sister Lee, who embark upon tour into the Australian swamp for fishing. Their guide uses a small motorboat and takes the tourists along the river to a remote spot. When they stop, they are attacked by a huge crocodile that capsizes their boat and immediately kills the tour guide. The three survivors climb a tree and when they realise that help isn’t coming to rescue them, they decide to try to find a way out of their sheltered location. However, in the muddy water, the crocodile stalks the trio. 

I rented the movie because my pal told me ‘ it does for crocodiles, what Jaws did for sharks’.  Now, Jaws is my favourite film of all time, but to me ‘Black Water’ is Jaws 4.  It’s has no where near the suspense or drama Jaws offers.  It felt the film was very repetitive and predictable.  There was poor character development and I felt nothing for them when they were in danger.  I was voting for the croc. In Jaws, there plenty of character development that the audience can sympathies and empathies with them, but in ‘Black Water’ there isn’t any.  I thought the film might have an entertainment value, but it lacked drawing the audience into the situation.  The film to me was like Open Water or Rogue.  There isn’t a believability to it.  I know they’re true stories, but it’s the way it’s delivered on screen that fails.  I still think someone out there has to make a film on the USS Indianapolis, which I believe could be a good a film as Jaws.

  On a personal note, thank you Andy for the Q and A with Lord Attenborough.  It was an absolute pleasure to be in the crowd and hear his thoughts on his professional and personal life.  I’m sure I speak for the class that if Mr. Attenborough was still in the auditorium, we would all be there listening intensely.  I also read on movie websites that producers Thomas Schuhly and Mario Kassar have the rights to remaking Metropolis.  Don’t know how far along that is, but time to stop the remakes before it gets out of hand.       

Cheers

Don't look back in anger

Howdy!

Recently, I got the chance to watch ‘Max Payne’ with a few of the guys from Uni.  The film is a video game adaptation, which stars Mark Wahlberg as the title character. Most video game adaptations have been box office flops and this was the same.  The story revolves around a series of murders in New York City in which DEA agent Max Payne, whose family was killed as part of a conspiracy and an assassin / Mona Sax (Mila Kunis) who is out to avenge her sister's death. The police, the mob, and a ruthless corporation hunt the duo.

I’ve never played the game so I couldn’t say if it’s faithful, but I wasn’t a fan of the movie.  Portions of the movie didn’t make sense to me; I fell asleep during the middle and eventually left before the end.  I thought the director (John Moore) was trying to make it look like ’Sin City’ type film.  Dark, depressing, moody, film-noir(ish), but it just didn’t work for me.  Mark Wahlberg gave a poor performance.  With his family brutally murdered, you would expect to feel for his character, but you don’t.  The supporting cast are no better, again you don’t care for them even though they have suffered major tragedies.  There wasn’t a lot of action sequences and the storyline just didn’t flow.  There was no rhythm or suspense.  The script failed to deliver any mystery or surprise and as an audience it wasn’t compelling to watch.   

It was quite a disappointing movie to watch and I wouldn’t  recommend to anyone.

Cheers