#43- Spring in a Small Town

Quick recap: A wife has grown tired of her daily life- chores, shopping, and taking care of her ailing husband. One day a man shows up who turns out to be the husband’s best friend but also the wife’s former love. Drama ensues as the two fall madly in love again. Once in awhile they remember that the husband is still around and sick to boot, and they feel like jerks in the end.

Fun (?) fact: The Communist party buried the film after its release in China because of lack of politics. It wasn’t until the 1980’s that people really started to appreciate the movie.

My thoughts: I audibly groaned when I found out this movie was next on the list because the whole thing seemed like torture to watch: a black and white foreign film about love and loss. Bleck. I especially winced as the opening credits came on the screen because they were jumpy and the audio kept going in and out. The opening scene is of the wife walking along the city wall as she does a voiceover explaining the unhappiness that is her life. It caught me off guard, to see such a ‘modern’ filmmaking tool such as voiceover to tell a story. I know this wasn’t the first film to do so, but it was still impressive to see, considering what the US had been churning out at the time.

As the plot revealed itself, I was calmed by its simplicity. Foreign films have a reputation as being hard to follow and I admit that I don’t have much experience watching films from China. So this was a pleasant surprise. ‘Simplicity’ might not be the best word to use to describe the film because the emotions that are laid out for the audience are quite complex. The friend cares deeply for the husband and his health but he is also still in love with the wife. He is a good person and really, all of the characters can be described as ‘good’. I felt sympathy for everyone, even the wife as she must make a decision to stay or go. Her love for her husband was apparent but she also had to reconcile with the reality that she had married a very sick man who was unable to give her what she needed.

Above everything else, I was mostly blown away by the fact that the entire story is told in two settings and between 5 characters. Big budget films can draw audiences in, but in the end, sometimes simplicity is needed to truly tell a story.

Final review: 4/5. Modern audiences can still appreciate the story, although it isn’t for everyone.

Up next: All the President’s Men

#42- Batman

Quick recap: In this installment, Batman battles The Joker (Jack Nicholson). He falls in love as well, but that subplot was a little too Lois Lane and Clark if you ask me and I’d rather just forget that it happened.

Fun (?) Fact: There’s a lot I could put up here, but I’ll just sum it up by saying comic book fans hated this movie.

My thoughts: I’m going to do my best not to compare 1989’s Batman to the later installment directed by Christopher Nolan because this Batman has PLENTY wrong with it without me needing to reference the rebooted trilogy. There is a lot to trash here but I’ll start with Batman himself. I’m not a comic book fan by any means but even I know how complicated a superhero he is. Batman’s appeal comes from the fact that he is burdened by being a superhero. He is the only one to save Gotham City and I would imagine that takes its toll after awhile. But in this movie, everything is neatly wrapped up in a tidy little package. Everything is explained by the end of the movie so that there doesn’t need to be another, except for more chances to sell merchandise. For starters, the movie makes it seem as if Bruce Wayne becomes Batman because his parents were murdered and he has the means to own cool gadgets. It’s like any person with a lot of money could step into this role. And Wayne for his part, quietly enjoys the attention Batman gets. It’s such an egotistical portrayal and turned me off. As for why he chooses a bat as his symbol, in one scene he says that he likes bats because ‘they are survivors’. NO THEY AREN’T. They are nocturnal animals that enjoy caves and hunting for their food. Now, if someone had held a gun to a bat’s head and it got away, THEN it would be a survivor. An animal being itself is not survival.

The character of Batman has been reduced to a rich boy showing off his cool toys. I was especially annoyed during the scene when The Joker puts on a parade with a bunch of balloons filled with deadly gas. Batman gets in his Bat plane and uses a BALLOON SNATCHER on his plane to save the day. WTF?

When talked about, most people mention that this movie’s saving grace is Jack Nicholson playing The Joker and I don’t disagree with that assessment. Nicholson stole every scene he was in and I enjoyed watching his various maniacal plans take shapes. But I wouldn’t call him a joker, per se, mainly because he didn’t tell jokes. If anything, he should’ve been called The Prankster or something. A joker he was not. I have no idea how authentic The Joker’s origin story is in this movie, but once again I felt that it was told too simply. The Joker killed Batman’s parents so it was ok for him to take revenge. The Joker has it in for Batman because early on in the movie he pushed him into a vat of chemicals. I felt like there should’ve been less explanation and just left it that some people are just evil.

And finally- Prince writing songs for this movie? Seriously? I know that it was 1989 and he was cool but didn’t any one stop and think that maybe his sound would be a little dated at some point. Any scene with Prince music became laughable and cringeworthy.

Prince transcends time and space

Final review: 2/5. The movie was at best, mildly entertaining. Nicholson was great but then again, he’s sort of known as being the go to for playing ‘insane guy’.

Up next: The Silence of the Lambs or Spring in a Small Town

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#41- El Topo

Quick recap: Oh, boy. So there’s this cowboy, called El Topo, who is sort of like God? And he travels around with his naked son as they go around the country killing bad guys. Simple enough, right? But then this girl shows up and El Topo calls her Mara and they do crazy stuff and she convinces him to fight 4 gun masters, as if that won’t end badly. And he does because he wants to keep having sex with her. Being the badass that he is, he indeed conquers all gun masters but does so by trickery and feels guilty about it because he is God. Or something. And then to top it off, Mara runs away with some chick with a man’s voice who shoots him all stigmata style before they run away together. End scene. The second part is even weirder and it involves little people and disabled people and El Topo getting involved in a cultist village and knocking up some girl. My brain exploded at this point.

Fun (?) Trivia: Alejandro Jodorowsky, who played El Topo, cast his young son in the movie to play the naked kid running around in the desert. That’s sort of a messed up thing to do and apparently Jodorowsky felt bad about it at some point and invited the boy to the backyard to dig up a toy and picture of his mother, just like the beginning scene. He then said ‘Now you are 8 and you have permission to be a kid’. Still doesn’t quite make up for your dad showing the world your junk at 6 but it’s something, I suppose.

My thoughts: 5 minutes into the film and I think I literally yelled out, ‘WTF!’ as El Topo guides his naked son among the bloody dead villagers. They come across a man who is dying and being the good father that he is, hands the gun to the boy to put the man out of his misery. After that there is some crazy nonsense with the bandits doing all sorts of sadistic stuff to a group of monks and I think at one point I just shrugged my shoulders and told myself to just stop thinking because it wasn’t worth it.

This is the sort of movie that screams, ‘art house’. Jodorowsky is some sort of crazy intellectual guy and put a ton of references to religion into this film of which I caught maybe 10%. It was only after reading the Wikipedia page for this movie that I realized the 4 gun masters represented different Eastern religions. I still don’t know what they are and as I have mentioned, my mind exploded at some point so I don’t care to look it up.

As a whole, El Topo is disturbing. Everything from the nudity to buckets of blood, to the exploitation of the disabled and little people. I knew at some level I was supposed to watch this all the while stroking my fake goatee and taking long puffs of my cigar and every few minutes leaning back and saying, ‘ah,yes. Clever fellow, this Jodorowsky’. But there were too many scenes that I just couldn’t get past. El Topo reeks of pretentiousness, and to find out John Lennon financed its release makes all the more sense.

In order to find some sort of positive in this movie, I will admit that I thought the ending was rather fitting, as El Topo set himself on fire and his son donned the black suit and became the new El Topo. I also liked that last scene because it meant the movie was OVER.

I’m just going to leave this here and let it haunt your dreams.

Final review: 1/5. I understand why this film was included on the list but I’ll be damned if I have to sit through it again.

Up next: Batman

at least he can play a mean flute

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#40- Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Quick recap: Roger Rabbit, a toon, has been framed for the murder of Marvin Acme and it’s up to Eddie Valient, PI, to help crack the case.

zany, I tells ya!

Fun (?) fact: This movie marked the first time Warner Brothers cartoons and Disney cartoons were together. Warner Brothers agreed to allow its most famous characters to be shown as long as they were given equal time as the Disney characters. This explains the scenes with Daffy Duck and Donald Duck playing piano and later on, Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse skydiving. It does not explain the 50 year old baby because where can you even begin?

This disturbed me way more than it should have

My thoughts: So. I have a confession to make. I don’t like Looney Tunes. I don’t know if this has always been the case and come to think of it, I don’t think it has. I remember owing a VHS of 50 Bugs Bunny cartoons or something like that when I was younger. But now there is no love lost between me and Warner Brothers. I’m going to blame ugly 90’s fashion on this one because at some point, someone decided it would be a good idea for cartoons to be used as a fashion statement.

NO. Also, I’m wondering if there was a crossover between Looney Tunes fashion and those awful No Fear t-shirts

With that out of the way, I can honestly say that I didn’t hate this movie. Yay! From a sophisticated adult perspective, I appreciate the homage to 40s detective movies as well as to the classic cartoons everyone grew up with. I was also impressed with the way the director balanced out well known characters with new ones. It helped secure the image of ToonTown as a place where all cartoons live, big and small.

I also enjoyed seeing the way humans and cartoons interacted with each other. This had been going on for years but a lot of time and effort was put into making the interactions even more believable. In fact, Disney animators coined the term ‘bump the lamp’ from this movie. The term refers to a scene in which Valient hoists Roger Rabbit into the air while his head repeatedly bumps the lamp. As the lamp swings side to side, it casts realistic shadows on both the human and cartoon. The point is that even though 98% of the audience wouldn’t notice this, it added to the movie’s authenticity. That’s why Disney and Pixar have always been ahead in the animation game, this attention to the most minute things. I’m sure I didn’t catch all of the little jokes in this movie, but I could tell how much work was put into the process.

more of an easter egg, but this attention to detail in the movie Aladdin is a great example of ‘bump the lamp’

The one part that bothered me about this movie is that I could never figure out who the film was geared towards. I mean, the movie is chock full of classic cartoon characters that children love but on the other hand, there is a lot of violence, language and innuendos. So, I guess the demographic was for adults after all, but then I looked online and found Happy Meal toys tied in to the movie.

Final review: 3/5. I don’t think I would watch this again and I don’t know when I would show it to my son. But I can still appreciate how well this movie was made and how much thought was put into it.

Up next: El Topo

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