Now Playing: The Go! Team--"Ladyflash"
I spent the days surrounding the Fourth as a semi-recluse; on running into a friend while leaving the Arboretum the evening of the Fourth, I babbled for a few minutes, perhaps not remembering how to converse. I suppose it was worth it to get some writing done and check out a few flicks, all of which turned out to have some sort of relevance for the holiday...
John Carpenter's They Live (1988), of course, was the conceptual basis for the classic Casionauts number "i came here to kick ass and chew bubble gum. (and i'm all out of bubble gum)," off Bailemos Muriemos Juntos! (2005). The music on the actual soundtrack is nowhere near as good, since (a) the first song mentioned was by the fucking Casionauts, and (b) on They Live, as in the Escape From Iconic American Coastal Cities movies, John Carpenter made the tragic decision to score the movie himself, which means a bland, slightly oppressive soundscape of unimaginative blues-rock. Some of you may be familiar with the plot: WWF legend "Rowdy" Roddy Piper plays a drifter in L.A. who discovers that skeletal aliens have infiltrated America's political and economic ruling class, among whom they've found a host of only too willing collaborators--the resemblances to the superior V (1983) were striking. In order to consolidate their rule, they implant subliminal messages ("obey," etc.) throughout the media. Once Piper learns of this nefarious plot, he grabs a shotgun and basically annihilates every alien he finds (discernible by a pair of special sunglasses)--a good eleven years before The Matrix. It's all very imaginative, slightly ridiculous, and in the end downbeat. So it's a lot like the Eighties, which the first half-hour magnificently skewers, focusing on the plight of L.A.'s working class and homeless population--a useful corrective to all those annoying VH1 shows. Piper's insanely uneven, surprisingly good in milder moments, as when he reminisces about his upbringing, but his delivery of lines such as the Casionauts song title and (even better) "Mama don't like tattletales" curiously lacks power. Keith David's good in an early role as Piper's co-worker and eventual ally, as is Meg Foster as the sort-of-love-interest. This is one of those flicks, like The President's Analyst, that just grow more depressingly believable with every year.
I've wanted to see Pickup on South Street (1953) forever, as Samuel Fuller is one of my artistic heroes. His autobiography A Third Face (1997, published near the time of his death) is probably one of the most entertaining works published about the cinema (and perhaps any art form). Pickup, one of his most famous movies, shows the Cold War through the worm's eye view of New York pickpocket Richard Widmark, who accidentally walks away with purloined microfilm that the Commies are after. Various attempts by the Red bastards and probably crooked police send Widmark through a variety of double-crosses before he can win free of both groups' clutches. Fuller's ahead-of-their time camera angles and editing struggle with Widmark's performance for mastery, and I love them both. Widmark was always at his best as lowlifes, sneering their way through their problems, and his avoidance of patriotic rhetoric ("don't wave the flag at me") makes this a rather subversive statement on American society during the 50s; the small fry have to protect themselves from the foreign threat, but they have to keep their backs to the wall so no one sneaks up on them. This, apparently, is "what freedom means" to the down and out, and it ain't pretty. There's a great interview with Fuller on the DVD extras where one can see what an amazing character (and American) this guy was.
The HBO flick Iron Jawed Angels (2004) visits the comparatively underused (at least in historical movie terms) field of first-wave American feminism. Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor) have grown weary of Carrie Chapman Catt (Anjelica Huston) and her cautious approach to a constitutional amendment for women's suffrage. Forming the National Women's Party, they begin to directly press the federal government (as opposed to working through state legislatures), a strategy leading to protests, picketing, the gimlet stare of Woodrow Wilson (Bob Gunton, so you know he's bad news), and imprisonment, the latter punctuated by brutal treatment, hunger strikes, and force-feeding. The cast is great (and, I must admit, easy on the eyes)--the only other thing I'd actually seen Swank in, believe it or not, was this TV movie from the mid-90s with Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Jenna von Oy about evil sorority girls causing suicide among their would-be anorexic pledges; as soon as I get a chance, I mean to check out Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby (mind you, I did see her hilarious impersonation of Loretta Lynn on Saturday Night Live, supported by Will Forte's cadaverous Jack White). O'Connor, who womanfully served through the trashy magnificence of Timeline, provides able support as Burns, Laura Fraser pops up as a mousy yet stalwart volunteer, and the great Brooke Smith makes everything three times better (as usual) as the imperturbable Mabel Vernon. Occasionally, Angels becomes a little too cartoonishly didactic and empowering. The unusual direction reminds me of a music video, with the frequent camera trickery and pop music on the soundtrack. I actually think this a good thing, as far too many movies (especially TV movies) dealing with historical subjects fall into a semi-reverential tone--Angels seems much more modern and immediate, which is fitting as many of the conflicts haven't been worked out yet (if they ever will). All the more reason to remember Independence Day.* Full circle, thank you.
*Yes and no, anyway--last week my Mexican co-worker asked our superior how Independence Day came to be, and the latter, in turn, asked me (because I was "brainy") whether it was the British who had formerly governed us. I was tempted to answer that it was the Ukrainians, but there are limits even to my nastiness.
Posted by Charles J. Microphone
at 3:58 PM EDT
Updated: 6 July 2006 4:53 PM EDT
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Updated: 6 July 2006 4:53 PM EDT
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