Into The Abyss

Long time film maker Werner Herzog (Aguire Wrath of God etc.)  forces the viewer to consider a subject that all too often gets swept under the rug of the justice system.  Through a series of interviews, the film presents young death row inmate Michael Perry.  No conspiracy of innocence here rather, a stark, depressing reality of what it means to commit murder.

Released: 2011

Director: Werner Herzog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOOoDLbrrgo

Straw Dogs

Sam Peckinpah (Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia and The Wild Bunch among others) further cements his proclivity toward all things violent in this thought provoking character study about two newly weds who return to the bride's hometown only to discover the welcome is less than warm.  David (Dustin Hoffman) hires some locals to complete work on their house and as the "plot thickens" he seems unable (unwilling?) to see what we the viewer have been watching develop all along.  When his wife Amy succumbs to a horrifying event (itself the subject of much controversy via an ambiguous portrayal of Amy's way of dealing with said event as it occurs) her (and our) preconceived notion of a happy, romantic newlywed world is turned upside down.  Eventually David is able (forced to) face the facts and ultimately deal with the steadily escalating matters at hand and the result is anything but peaceful.

A disturbing probe into community and alienation, that which transpires is the anti-thesis of home and heart.

Released in 1971

Directed by Sam Peckinpah

No stranger to drugs and alcohol, Sam Peckinpah had to be admitted to the hospital during filming after catching pneumonia due to an all night bender.  Filming was only allowed to commence based on his oath to stay sober. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdDZAAPx_IU

Romper Stomper

Hando (Russel Crowe) is the leader of a racist gang of skinheads who spend their days drinking, fighting and terrorizing the "foreign" population.  Davey, Hando's main mate seems just as boneheaded as the rest of the bunch but beneath the surface we learn he has a heart and over time it's this organ that gets his brain to listen. By the end of the film Davey will find himself face to face with Hando under not so friendly circumstances.

To say this film is controversial would be an accurate statement.  The director's ultimate message risks getting overlooked in what could be construed as a kind of  ambiguous portrayal of an idiotic ideology driven by hate, delusion, intolerance and fear.   

Daniel  Pollack who played Davey took his own life before the film was released.  

Romper Stomper

Released in 1992

Directed by Geoffrey Wright

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKvQiHiLabE

The Great Silence

The Great Silence

1968

What a year.  1968 was rife with strife, change was all around and no less so in cinema.  Spaghetti westerns were nothing new but this type was.  My question is, how is it that Italians like Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci could make better westerns then us?  Speaking of these two directors, though similarities abound, Corbucci seemed to cross the line where Leone would straddle it.  

The Great Silence is the story of Silence a mauser "broom handle" C96 toting anti-hero aptly named as he cannot speak. Most of the townsfolk  have bounties on them due to a crooked banker and his bounty hunters which include none other than Klaus Kinski who plays a real bastard of a character against a backdrop of wintry cold snow and mountains.   Silence is employed by a recent widow who wishes to see her husbands death avenged and the end result is anything but predictable.  

Many applaud Quentin Tarantino for his over the top mash ups but without the likes of Corbucci (among others) there would be no Tarantino.  

The Great Silence

Released in 1968

Director: Sergio Corbucci

Music: Ennio Morricone (The Good The Bad and The Ugly etc.)

The snow in the town of snow hill was created by gallons of shaving cream.

Part 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGRVvFVqyew

Part 2: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG4zBIDA7lk

Man Bites Dog

Film #3 is the first international film to appear on this blog.  A messy, sticky Belgium pastry puff of cinema, this movie does what Europe does best, turn the tragic into a cynical farce.  Enter Ben, a serial killer who is shadowed by a live camera crew that presents an objective (at first) POV.  Not recommended for the prudish, the death scenes range from realistically bizarre to comically tragic.  Ben provides his own narration that offers a glimpse into his own particular world view.  One of those movies that will subtly haunt you for days.

Man Bites Dog released in 1992

Directors: Remy Belvaux, Andre Bonzel, Benoit Poelvoorde.

Banned in Sweden due to extreme violoence. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58g-gFAsuYA&list=PLveuuSrPOJ5ncrr6lk0ZRIyO_SyLxMY8T&index=22

Miller's Crossing

Miller's Crossing  1990

Miller's Crossing may not seem like a typical Coen bros. flick because it isn't.  one gets the sense that these two were still testing the waters of the early days, having yet to bottle "the  formula" that would contain the hallmarks of their trade.

To call it a gangster movie seems to cheapen it but if you have to go there, i don't think there will ever be another quite like it.

Dark, brooding, calculating and conniving, the atmosphere matches The Dane (Gabriel Byrne).  John Turturro's performance won't soon be forgotten either (perhaps in fact unmatched lest you mention Barton Fink which incidentally was written during a stint of writer's block that struck the Coens while writing the screenplay for Miller's Crossing).  His grovelling line "look into your heart" is as powerful as the hat we see blowing through the woods (though admittedly much less enigmatic, or maybe it's just simply a hat blowing through the woods?  Must everything be injected with meaning?  Yes, well, to an extent.)

In the least, this film is a PHD thesis on the concept of Double Cross.

Watch it and you'll never wish you hadn't.

Released in 1990
Directed by Joel Coen
The movie flopped upon release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoktrZ8Qyqg

HUD

HUD 1963

Paul Newman's tough, cool character is not the only reason to sit through this thing for there is much more going on then a first or even second glance might reveal.
The landscape presents itself as a dreamy, almost kind of post apocalyptic setting where the past has collided with a one time future turned now.
Its a story of old versus young, of values, principles and care versus the emerging "I could give a damn" wind that was starting to blow.  There is the father who blames his son for a certain tragedy and a son who wishes that father would forgive him.  There is blind youth which wants to admire the wild ways of an older brother who only offers a paradoxical uncertainty.  And there's a few spiritual crutches to help prop our players up.   Its a timeless tale of staunch tradition and its blatant disregard.  It's also a tale of lonliness. A lonliness of topography and a loneliness of the heart.

Released in 1963
Directed by Martin Ritt
Upon release, Paramount executives were unappy with the film as they felt it was too dark and were displeased by the black and white cinematography and Hud's lack of remorse and unchanged behavior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6kaFuqvdEk&index=51&list=PLveuuSrPOJ5ncrr6lk0ZRIyO_SyLxMY8T