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Film & TV on DVD - John Doe News & Reviews

 
Greetings Film Fiends and welcome to John Doe's Film Blog. 30 years of dedicated celluloid obsession has meant that I have seen a few films. Drawing attention to some of the lesser discussed gems that I love. Cult classics, obscure curios and quality genre pictures. This blogs purpose is to translate some of my passion for these films and with luck, inspire you the reader to go check em out.

Film & TV on DVD - March 2008

Akira 2009

March 29th 2008 12:36
Akira is one of my favourite films of all time. Released in 1988, it’s an achievement not just in Japanese animation of it’s time, but continues to demonstrate a quality of animation that equals that of modern cartoon animation.


Original Japanese Trailer.

Akira is an incredibly complex film. The government, the military, the scientists, the anti-government rebel groups, the delinquent children, the New age psycho hippies, the biker gangs; each live in a kind of intertwined struggle – each fighting against one other for power, frighted of each others potential. There’s a lot of varied motivations intertwined here, and it’s easy to loose track.


The film touches on many themes, but the most prominent is of the concept that ‘all power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ The above groups are locked into their own power struggles, which are soon dwarfed by Tetsuo’s new, military testing induced psychic powers. As Tetsuos power grows, his control wanes, and everything spirals desperately out of control.

One of the things I love so much about the film is it’s soundtrack. The following video features one of the songs from the film. The visuals are enjoyable too, but I’d simply like to share the music with you. (Does contain violence).




Song: 'Kaneda' by Geinoh Yamashirogumi.

Lyrics; Japanese;

Arashi, gareki, honoo, kakera, machi, tatsumaki, chikara, hikari, yatsura, matsuri, sora, nakama, hashiru!
RASSERA, RASSERA, RASSE, RASSE, RASSERA!
RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSERA!

English: Storm, Rubble, Flame, Shards, City, Tornado, Power, Light, Them, Festival, Sky, Friends Running.
RASSERA, RASSERA, RASSE, RASSE, RASSERA!
RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSE, RASSERA!

More information on the original Soundtrack can be found here.

The following video features the opening six minutes of the film, including the famous opening explosion.



The reason that I’ve been put in the mood to rant and rave over this film in particular, is that at present I’m equal parts nervous and exited over the announcement that there’s a new Akira film in the works.

Unlike the animated film which manages to squish six massive volumes of comics into one relatively small film, the live action film will be done Lord of the Rings Style, in two parts. This is probably for the best, as the current film is essentially a rough adaptation.

It is set to be produced by Leonardo Di Caprio, Andrew Lazar and Jennifer Davisson. No, I’ve never heard of those last two either. The script is said to be written by hardened computer/comic geekmaster Gary Whitta. Wikipedia in it’s wisdom has given rumour that Di Caprio is to play Kaneida, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is to play Tetsuo.

I have high hopes for the film, so let’s all cross our fingers and hope we don’t end up seeing it all set in America or anything silly like that.
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In Memory of Richard Widmark

March 28th 2008 00:00
Richard Widmark R.I.P


richard Widmark
Richard Widmark 1914 - 2008


Time is tight for Johnny D this week and as a result posts have been neglected. The sad news of screen legend Richard Widmark passing however demands a quick moment of reflection.

richard Widmark
Widmark - The aging character actor


Dying this week at the age of 93, he was a captivating presence onscreen. Managing to inject duplicity in many of his parts, he portrayed villains with a cold humanity maintaining a supreme menace. When playing a good guy he was capable of exposing his characters flaws while never embracing sentimentality.

richard widmark kiss of death
Widmark makes his debut in Kiss of Death


There was nothing simplistic in his characterizations. Lacing even the emptiest script with a complex core, he was at his best when toying with unsympathetic roles. Embracing conflicted, often hard boiled protagonists this brave performer commanded JD’s undivided attention whenever he was onscreen.

Never receiving the industry accolades he deserved, the charismatic actor ranks as one of the most intense and interesting silver screen legends. In honour of his passing here is a list of John Doe’s 14 favourite Richard Widmark films:

Sam Fuller’s Pickup on South Street
Jules Dassin’s Night in the City
Henry Hathaway’s Kiss of Death
Don Siegel’s Madigan
William Keighley The Street With No Name
Elia Kazan’s Panic in the Streets
Henry Hathaway’s Garden of Evil
Edward Dmytryk’s Broken Lance
Vincente Minnellie’s The Cobweb
Lewis Milestone’s The Halls of Montezuma
Edward Dmytryk’s Warlock
John Ford’s Cheyenne Autumn
Stanley Kramer’s The Domino Principle
Stanley Kramer’s Judgement at Nuremberg
Sidney Lumet’s Murder on the Orient Express


Witness a taste of Richard Widmark's breakout performance as the unforgiving scum in Kiss of Death


Richard Widmark in Pickup on South Street



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Faces (1968) - Footage Included

March 27th 2008 00:05
John Cassavetes Faces
By JDM Guest writer: Shaun Katz

This is the fourth segment of weekly reviews on the films of John Cassavetes.

faces poster
Faces Poster


A few weeks ago I discussed how Shadows was Cassavetes first and only film to be made so far by him in an entirely independent way. Even though we got a taste in Shadows, Faces is the first film where the explosiveness of spontaneity, embarrassment, uncontrollable outbursts and expressive volatility came to an operatic peak. We get to live through these peoples lives in a way that has really never been emulated since.

john cassavetes faces
Two of the faces in Faces


Faces comes out of Cassavetes meditation on the most miserable period of his life, making studio films. Cassavetes found himself living his life as part of a culture of men who prided themselves on being bullies. The emptiness of these men’s lives extended to not only using money to stampede over whoever they could, but using money to conduct their most personal and romantic relations with women too. Cassavetes said he woke up one day and realized that he was living in this sub culture. People who made their lives about achievement only and the more unhappy they were the more they used their financial power and status to over-compensate.

If the main presence in Shadows was playfulness, then in Faces the main one is crisis. ‘Faces’ contains more laughter then I have seen in any other film, however, this is a laughter of complete denial, laughter of desperation, anxiety, hysterics, in fact every type of laughter except playfulness. Occasionally there will be laughter from characters that seem to come from playfulness, but it’s really coming from an utter fear of silence.

Now, contradictory to that, Faces is a surprisingly very funny film, a film where sleep walkers are slapped awake and forced to feel real emotions again, are caused to get in touch with everything that they think they don’t have anymore and everything that they stand to lose – in the case of these men, their marriages.

Here is a sample of the wit and humour in Faces


Near the beginning of the film we see three drunken adults, two of them middle aged men, acting like children. However, this is a far cry from Too Late Blues or Shadows, idealism has worn thin, sincerity has been fatigued, society and responsibility say that it is inappropriate for them to behave this way. It’s an embarrassing scene to watch as these two middle aged men become awfully catty, as they vie for the affection of a young prostitute they are spending the evening with. After one of these older men throw a tantrum that is the emotional equivalent of a ten year old, the party is broken up and the two men go home to their wives. Their wives being the other side of the coin. Cassavetes explores in a series of startling revelations these women and their feelings or in many cases their buried feeling concerning their husbands. Needless to say - affairs are rampant.

The film gains intensity when Richard Forst (played by John Marley) demands a divorce from his wife, Maria (Lynn Carlin, who was also nominated for an Oscar in the film, although talk of Oscar nominations in the context of this film is absolutely ludicrous). These two married people go out into a world where everything is exploding with change in the culture, the sexual revolution is occurring and the women in these marriages are stuck with the short end of the stick, in marriages with husbands they still love but have no idea how to express themselves. The men continue to chug along in the manner that they are used to, flashing their positions on the work chain as they see themselves being replaced by younger men with new ideals. Richard and Maria both search for a temporary fling that night to run away from the doom of their marriage and after one of the most powerful climaxes I have ever seen in any film, where the temperature goes beyond boiling, they still have to return to each other, figure out what they are doing and where they have gone wrong.

RICHARD FORST“Do you want violence! You want me to be violent, is that it? Do you want me to slap you across the face every time you open your mouth?!”

john cassavetes faces
The distorted Face of love


Something very interesting about Faces is that is seems to have been made in a way that consciously tries to avoid analysis. Everything about the way the film was made attempts to destroy everything we have traditionally looked at as cinematic shorthands for analysis eg. Expressive camera angles, mood music etc. The film demands that we take a more human approach to its experience. This will be the first Cassavetes film that feels like every element is stripped down to a rawness, where all we have are the people in them. Al Ruban’s high contrast, 16 mm, black and white cinematography helps achieve this as his camera zooms in a little too close to the actor and reveals all.

The biggest revelation in this film however is the acting, Faces set a new standard for spontaneity in film. The actor who steals the show in this department is Seymour Cassel (The Royal Tenenbaums, Convoy, The Last Tycoon, Dead Presidents etc.), who won the 1968 National Society of Film Critics award for best supporting actor and a 1969 Oscar nomination. Hands down, I believe this to be one of the greatest performances of all time as he plays ‘Chet’ a young, happy go lucky ladies man who has these house wives fighting over him as he attempts to make them lighten up a little. Gena Rowlands is also very strong in the film, although I think she does better work in Cassavetes later films.

A scene from the film with Seymour Cassel in full flight


The fact that so many critics thought that his films were improvised is only a credit to Cassavetes as a writer, what he is doing in terms of dramatic structure in this film is so fundamentally different to most films that it’s no surprise that the film is lost on many viewers. Faces is considered to possibly be the film that spawned the ground breaking American cinema of the seventies. It came out at a time when the studios where dying. Hollywood was continually losing money and while Robert Altman and Sydney Lumet were certainly pushing out regular films at that time, Faces is said to be the film that sparked and inspired the revolution of American films by Scorsese, Coppola, Hopper, Lucas and Friedkin and its mark can still be felt today in T.V. shows like ‘The Office’ and ‘The Sopranos’.

As you can tell, Faces is a film I have an extraordinary passion for and the making of it which took four years is even more extraordinary, it is one of the films that changed my life and it literally rewired my nervous system the first time I watched it. I will now conclude this review before all objectivity goes out the window. I will end by saying that if you are comfortable mainly with mainstream films Faces may very well confuse you a little, no wait, a lot, however, if you are a viewer who considers yourself to be open minded to different forms of cinema then you are in for a very powerful film about a culture of people who’s own wealth has absolutely swallowed them up and they have forgotten themselves in it.

Coming next week – the intensity of Faces tips over into the madness of ‘Husbands


Watch the Faces Trailer
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John Cassavetes: Part 3
Review By: Shaun Katz


[ Click here to read more ]
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Coming Soon: David Mamet’s Redbelt

March 18th 2008 00:01
Preview: David Mamet Redbelt
Due in Australia: August 7th 2008

[ Click here to read more ]
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The Fumes of Change


two lane blacktop DVD
DVD Available in Australia
Director: Monte Hellman
[ Click here to read more ]
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Shadows (1959) - Trailer Included

March 13th 2008 00:02
John Cassavete's Shadows

A review by: Shaun Katz

[ Click here to read more ]
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Supanova 2008 - A Preview

March 10th 2008 00:01
Supanova Nirvana Returns.


Hands on and completely interactive, this year “Supanova” returns to Australia with a cavalcade of familiar faces that have John Doe ready to attack the nearest clone if it sped up the events arrival.
[ Click here to read more ]
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A Beginners Guide to Making a Bad Film


for your consideration
A lesson For Your Consideration

[ Click here to read more ]
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Bushido Redemption


The Yakuza DVD
DVD Available in Australia

[ Click here to read more ]
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John Cassavetes: An Introduction

March 3rd 2008 00:05
An Introduction to John Cassavetes
Written By: Shaun Katz

[ Click here to read more ]
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Australian Cinema Releases: March 2008

As usual this is not a comprehensive list of all the films released in Aussie Cinemas this month. Instead it’s a compilation of big screen arrivals that have an element of interest for John Doe.
[ Click here to read more ]
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Australian DVD releases for March 2008

Disclaimer: John doe used to do a regular coming soon section each month specifically geared towards Australian audiences. Over the last few months an increased external work load has taken its toll but now in an effort to get back on track here is the return of the JDM Coming Soon section.
[ Click here to read more ]
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