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.

Action War - Film & TV on DVD

First Blood (1982) - Trailer Included

December 24th 2007 00:01

The mechanisms of a killer.

Original lobby Poster

Director: Ted Kotcheff
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Brian Denehey, David Caruso, Bill McKinney, Michael Talbott, Chris Mulkey

“You don't seem to want to accept the fact you're dealing with an expert in guerrilla warfare, with a man who's the best, with guns, with knives, with his bare hands. A man who's been trained to ignore pain, ignore weather, to live off the land, to eat things that would make a billy goat puke. In Vietnam his job was to dispose of enemy personnel. To kill! Period! Win by attrition. Well Rambo was the best.” – Sam Trautman

David Morrell’s intense, cat and mouse first person novel became one of the most successful action films ever made and inspired countless imitators. This is another case of an intelligent and inventive original being maligned because of mindless sequels and public perception. Notorious for its violent content, despite the fact that the body count of the film totals only four.

Mindfully attentive to the art of death and survival tactics this is the birthplace of iconic John J Rambo. Returning to a disgruntled society, the last survivor of a Green Beret covert operations unit that served in Vietnam.

He has endured horrific torture and witnessed unspeakable atrocities. Unceasing physiologically damages inflicted during his classified tour of duty have rendered him incapable of reassimilate into civilisation.
“Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off! It wasn't my war! You asked me, I didn't ask you! And I did what I had to do to win! But somebody wouldn't let us win! And I come back to the world and I see all those maggots at the airport, protesting me, spitting. Calling me baby killer and all kinds of vile crap! Who are they to protest me? Who are they? Unless they've been me and been there and know what the hell they're yelling about!” - Rambo

Coping by living a nomadic life John J has wanders into the outskirts of a small town called Hope located at the foot of snow capped mountains. Hitchhiking and hungry for a meal he is picked up by the stubborn sheriff Will Teasle who soon arrests him for vagrancy.
“There wouldn't be no trouble except for that king shit cop! All I wanted was something to eat. But the man kept pushing Sir.” – Rambo

Once in the confines of the town prison he is physically abused by the local deputy triggering Rambo’s mentally instabilities to frenzy. Fast, efficient and deadly he escapes in a hurricane of violence fleeing on motorbike into the dense familiar terrain of the forest.

A manhunt is immediately launched and despite outnumbering their foe the police soon discover it is John J who is most at home in combat. Now he has declared a one man war against Teasle and anyone that gets in the way is going to meet extreme pain.
“I could have killed 'em all, I could kill you. In town you're the law, out here it's me. Don't push it. Don't push it or I'll give you a war you won't believe. Let it go. Let it go.” - Rambo

You ain't so bad. Where is the guy with the mohawk?

John Doe says:
The 80’s action genre can be split into two sections, the inspiration and the imitation. Films like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon broke new ground with excessive body counts, witty one liners and razor sharp editing that propelled each scene into the next.

First Blood also inspired the genre, taking itself deadly serious, feverishly researched to successfully deliver authentic scenes of brutal primal instinct. Taking a classic blueprint and amputating unnecessary fat, modernising it with larger enemy numbers and more visceral damage of flesh and sinew.

The exciting physical directions are specific and intregral to the convincing of fictional plausibility. Constructed so the suspense is never far removed from the lethal atmosphere, a well placed lens sits back to provide constant orientation and perspective on the abrupt action.

Unbroken editing swiftly heightens the power of blood pumping stunt work. A massive fall from a daunting cliff face still leaves JD breathless.

There is a silent voice of integrity in the script that really is the strength of the overall work. The well structured Michael Kozoll (Hill St Blues) dialogue is taut and economic. The protagonist’s lines are minimal making him enigmatic until the outburst of rage and frustration in the finale. The three main characters are given sincere motives and each has their own ambiguous peccadillo that adds to the already frame turning scenarios.

Sylvester Stallone (Copland, Nighthawks, Victory) was already recognized as Rocky when he took on the lead in this hot property that had once been a Steve McQueen project and also Clint Eastwood and Dustin Hoffman had circled. His mumbling, incoherent delivery full of slobbering emotion and unspoken volatile threats is appropriate here and the musclebound body language is necessary.

Brian Dennehy (FX, Cocoon, Best Seller, Silverado) brings his trademark staunch sense of menacing authority that seems to underscore all his roles since. He convinces as the arrogant Korean vet turned lawman with something to prove.

Richard Crenna (Wait Until Dark, Sand Pebbles, Body Heat, Flamingo Kid) dominates onscreen as Trautman the man who trained and programmed the instrument of terror.

Keep an eye out for a less than intimidating David Caruso in an early role.

For a 13 year old John Doe there were moments in this that truly stunned, the mangled torso’s and astonishing needle and thread surgery were eye opening.

Watching it again recently with his young nephew Johnny realised that action cinema often fails to capture the same sense of intimate energy that comes from death wish stunt work within a solidly crafted framework. This isn’t meant to be masterpiece theatre but instead crackling entertainment to engage the adrenal glands and testosterone rich imaginations

A retrograde trailer for First Blood

Here is Rambo busting out of the police jail and heading for the hills.

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Posted By: JohnDoe - Category: Action, War, Thriller

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The Dirty Dozen (1967) - Trailer Included

October 31st 2007 00:00

The Fleshy Sinew of War

The Dirty Dozen 2 Disc available in Australia

Director: Robert Aldrich
Starring: Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Telly Savalas, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker

Savaged by the critics, loved by audiences ever since, The Dirty Dozen was an exploding grenade to the back of the head of the traditional war propaganda film when it was released. Tough minded, the beastly face of war is shown through a boys own adventure story with charismatic criminals.

Chewing on bullets Lee Marvin plays Major Reisman, the man told to recruit 12 vicious death row prisoners for a suicide mission into Kraut territory. The film opens with a convict brutally hanging then Reisman is assigned interviews his potential crew, one at a time in their cells.

An undisciplined pack, in most cases psychologically unhinged, all have a problem with authority. There’s the racially downtrodden (Jim Brown), the dopey (Donald Sutherland) and a hulk with anger issues, (Clint Walker) plus, an adversarial sociopathic loner (John Cassavetes) and a psychotic religious zealot with rape on the brain (Telly Savalas).

Then comes the former officer, an intelligent brute (Charlie Bronson) who can speak German and ends up serving as a reluctant hero.

It is Reisman’s job to crack these individuals and make them a lethal fighting force who’ll operate as a team. Training them in violence, nurturing and honing their killer instincts so they can be unleashed on the Nazi’s and fulfil their deadly orders.

What do you mean you didn't like Paint your Wagon?

John Doe says:
Burning brighter than the oil wells used too in Iraq, this gung ho evil men doing evil things epic is a covert operation in anti war reality, cleverly displaced within the framework of a John Wayne type invincible men yarn.

The simple sounding plot, which has attempted to be replicated ever since is brilliantly bullet holed through volatile characterization from the cast and maximum coverage demanded by their leader.

Veteran Director Robert Aldrich (Whatever Happened to baby Jane, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, Kiss Me Deadly, Flight of the Phoenix, Attack, Vera Cruz, The Killing of Sister George) was one tough hombre and he had a lot to say about mortal combat and the justice system. So much so that there is a rumour that persists to this day that had he cut out one of the shocking scenes in the film an Oscar was all but guaranteed.

Wrangling the macho men of arms to stage and handle the action set pieces, framed for impact then edited like they were WMD’s against the viewer. The grim atmosphere is punctuated by larger than life moments that lure you into going along for the ride despite the fact the consequences have been made abundantly clear.

Alderich loved capturing obtuse angles and acute POV shots to be spliced into the motif and again suspense and tension are heightened by there inclusion. The cinematography guides us with warnings and punctuation through the lens.

The final viles of nitro-glycerine are the script and score. The edgy, less is more Nunnally Johnson screenplay (Man in the Grey Flannel Suit, How to Marry a Millionaire, Grapes of Wrath) only has lines when absolutely necessary because most of the leads are the strong silent types.

The military cadence of Alderich’s regular music man, Frank De Vol establishes a melancholy doom later recreated in Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch.

The temperamental perfectionist John Cassavetes (Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Rosemary’s Baby, Husbands, The Killers) was nominated for an Oscar for his heavily improvised performance.

Lee Marvin’s (Point Blank, The Big Red One, Death Hunt) battle weary gravitas through ordering men to their destiny is unmatched.

By this time Charles Bronson (Once Upon A time in the West, The Mechanic, Red Sun, The Valachi Papers, magnificent 7, the Great Escape) had chiselled back his rugged loner persona so his eyes and face say more than his dialogue.

One time Football legend Jim Brown (Mars Attacks, I’m Gunna Git You Sucker, Three The Hard Way, Slaughter, 100 Rifles) made his film debut in this and he does a fine job in a field of supernova talent.

Telly Savalas (Kojak, Capricorn One, Escape To Athen) slaughters with Bravado portraying the demented Jesus loving predator.

This is also the film where Donald Sutherland (The Split, Kelly’s Heroes, Klute, Johnny Got His Gun, Don’t Look Now, Day of the Locust, The Eagle Has Landed, Murder by Decree, Invasion of the Body Snatchers) packing only a couple of lines managed to get noticed by Robert Altman and was cast in M.A.S.H.

Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker and Ernest Borgnine, all the cast seem to bring personal experiences to their parts.

This is a one of those films that always enters the fray when the topic turns to best war movies of all time…and rightfully so. John Doe grew up watching this film and it is one that evolves with time. Each subsequent viewing it’s that little more sombre, that richer in detail and skilful storytelling, Refreshing in its conclusion, thrilling entertainment but if you look closer there is more.

The Original Trailer