Reviews

WARNING SPOILERS MAY BE AHEAD Sam Peckinpah may just be the most sexist director in movie history. Alfred Hitchcock is a close second, but he just liked to humilate his female characters, wheras Peckinpah views them as man's downfall. Consider that most his female characters from THE WILD BUNCH to PAT GARRET AND BILLY THE KID to BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA are all whores. The ones that aren't like Ali McGraw in THE GETAWAY, are willing to whore themselves to get what they want. In STRAW DOGS, Dustin Hoffman plays an American professor who moves to his wife's small England town to live peacefully. Unfortunatly, the local men, all of whom seem to know Hoffman's wife intimately, insult his masculinity and harass him constantly. Hoffman is terrfied by his attackers, but consider the reaction of his wife. When the attackers break into their house, to rape his wife, she goes along with it. There are no screams of terror or attempt to fight them off. Instead, she's a willing participant. The closing scenes in the film which are mercilessly violent, are therefore strange. Peckinpah has done something different here, along the lines of John Ford's THE SEARCHERS or Martin Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER. He's protecting a woman, who herself does not want to be protected. There is a difference however. This time, Hoffman is in danger too, something Wayne wasn't in SEARCHERS of DeNiro in TAXI DRIVER. Peckinpah has made a complex film, that challegnes his audience to evaluate everything they have seen in the movie carefully. Peckinpah was dismissed by feminist critics as sexist and vile, a man who hated women. This may well be true, but what interesting films he made on that theme. His women always love the main characters (remember the sad scene in ALFREDO GARCIA, where Oates' girlfriend is willing to be raped to protect him) yet they always seem like a lot of trouble. Peckinpah is a master film maker, and STRAW DOGS is one of his great works.

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD Along with John Ford's THE SEARCHERS, Howard Hawkes' RED RIVER, Robert Altman's McCABE AND MRS MILLER and Clint Eastwood's UNFORGIVEN, THE WILD BUNCH is one of the greatest acheivements in western moviemaking. It is a violent story of an old gang in the late 1910's who have outlived there time period. The wild west is dead, and yet they go on living. They travel to Mexico, where hopefully they will find a place to belong. But it's useless. All the find is a violent military government and sad people. William Holden plays Pike, the leader of the gang who rob a bank and flee to Mexico. Robert Ryan is a former gang member, hired to hunt them done. These two great actors give perhaps their best performances in this film. There are many great moments here. The opening robbery, the bridge blowing up and of course the final showdown. Before the showdown takes place, a quieter, scene takes place. Pike, sitting in a room of a whorehouse, looks at her and her baby. He then throws all his gold on the floor and walks over the next room where two other members are. He says two words "Let's go" and they both know immediately what he wants. They then walk outside, where Ernest Borgnine is waiting. One look at Holden and he knows what they have to do. The following shots are quiet, as these four men walk down a dusty street, towards their deaths. This is a sequence of devastating emotional power, matched by the closing battle and then the final scenes in the movie, where Robert Ryan, sits outside of town thinking for hours. He should have been there and died with his friends, not been trying to catch them. This is undoubtably the best movie master filmmaker Sam Peckinpah ever made. A violent, emotional masterpiece.

WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY is one of the best westerns ever made. Directed by Sam Peckinpah, this is more of a classic style western than a Peckinpah western (see WILD BUNCH or PAT GARRET AND BILLY THE KID). It is the sad story of two aged gunfighters (Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott) hired to transport gold. McCrea has honor left in his old age and wants to do a good job. Scott, tired of having to whore his old reputation just wants to steal the gold. These two old friends clash. There are many fine moments in this film, like when McCrea, too embarrassed to admit he needs glasses to read, goes into the bathroom to read over the contract. Or after McCrea ties Scott's hands together and Scott pleads with McCrea to undo his hands for the night because "I don't sleep to well anymore". These men reminded me of the outlaws in Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH, because like them, they are past their prime and have outlived there time. They are men with few equals, because everyone else they know is already dead. The final scene in the movie, where McCrea is dying and says to Scott "I don't want them to see this" referring to the two youngsters along for the ride is one of the saddest, most poignant moments in any western. This is a great film.

TRAINING DAY goes for broke. Everything about it is over the top, and that's why I loved it so much. It's not a gritty, realistic portrayal of a corrupt police officer, but a story of a man so far over his head that there is no way he'll ever get out. It reminded me of Brian DePalma's SCARFACE, about drug dealer Tony Montana. Realistic? No, but tremendous movie making. Denzel Washington outdoes himself here. He goes over the top so far, but still within the limits of the movie. Director Antoine Fuqua (THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS and BAIT) is not exactly known for his subtley, and TRAINING DAY is anything but subtle. It's like a freight train of a movie. The violence is strong, persistant and off putting, but then again it's supposed to be. (WARNING SPOILERS MAY BE AHEAD). The final scenes with Denzel in the street screaming at all the people he thought loved him so much, are great. Denzel's fate was sealed from the beginning of the movie, it just took him some time to realize it.

WARNING SPOILERS CONTAINED

I am shocked at all the negative reviews this film has gotten on this website. This perfectly demonstrates that many people are no longer interested in watching challenging movies, they just want to see old movies rehashed again and again. THE PLEDGE is a fascinating, visually stunning film that contains one of Jack Nicholson's very best performances. He plays a cop who on his last day before retirement gets involved in a case involving a murdered child. He is the one who has to tell the parents about the crime, in a wonderful scene as Nicholson has to walk through thousands of turkeys to get to the parents. Nicholson pledges to find the killer. The other cops think they have their man, a retarded Indian who confessed, then killed himself. Nicholson doesn't think so. He does some investigating and finds two similar unsolved cases in the area, where the description of the victim was identical to the crime he's investigating. He sets up a surveillance of the area by buying a gas station where he's sure the killer will turn up. He meets a woman (Robin Wright Penn) who has a daughter who fits the description of the other victims. But, he would never use her as bait, would he? The ending has drawn a lot of complaints, but I think it ends the film on the perfect note. Nicholson's dark obsession with the killer, and his using a little girl for serial killer bait, means that Nicholson is not a hero. If he isn't a hero, why should he get a heroes ending? A lot of people say a lot of terrible things about Nicholson as the film closes, all of them true. But he wasn't wrong. This is a fascinating film about a man slowly imploding. 10/10

CAUTION: MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD- NOTHING MAJOR BUT IF YOU WANT TO GO IN FRESH, DON'T READ

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM is a masterpiece. It is the most harrowing, unforgettable look at drug abuse ever put on film. It makes TRAINSPOTTING and DRUGSTORE COWBOY look pale by comparison. Ellen Burstyn delivers the best performance of anyone this year as a old housewife who convinces herself she'll be on TV and takes diet pills to lose weight. Her slow descent into madness is unforgettable. Jared Leto is also amazing as her son- a hard drug addict who along with his friend, Marlon Wayans, comes up with a plan to make money. Leto's final fait is graphic, unforgettable and deeply disturbing. Then there is Jennifer Connelly- the most underrated actress in the movies. She starts out a beautiful, sweet, naive girlfriend of Leto's, and by the end she has turned into a hardcore addict, putting on sex shows for perverts to get her fix. The film is brilliantly well made- the fast-forward montages, and extreme close-ups probably show us what its like to be on drugs better then any film before it. This truly is a masterwork, by a talented new director. 10/10