Paramount Summer Classic Film Series Double Feature-Romancing the Stone/Three Amigos

 

Robert Rodriguez is a local Austin hero. As a film maker, he has worked extensively in the Austin area and used local crafts people and locations for his films. He has been able to select a group of movies for the Summer Classic Film Series, and present them to the audience with a live introduction for a few years now. This last Sunday, he had three films that he wanted to talk about that featured Mexican Actor/Director Alfonso Arau. Rodriguez was inspired by Arau when he was just starting out and he got a break, which allowed him to spend a week or so as a young man, assisting and hanging out with Arau. They have since become friends and it is fitting that Rodriguez selected his friend to feature in this summer's presentations.

There were actually three features on Sunday that concerned Arau, unfortunately, we could not stay for the film he directed "Like Water for Chocolate". I have it in my collection and we will catch up with it soon. The two films we were able to see were movies that Alfonso Arau had an acting role in. He is not the star of the films but he is an important featured player in both of them

Romancing the Stone

"Romancing the Stone" was 20th Century Fox's entry into the Indiana Jones clone films. Everyone was looking for an adventure film with comedy, romance and stunts, to pull in audiences the way the Steven Spielberg films had done. The movie was a big success and it cemented the stardom of Kathleen Turner and created a partnership with Michael Douglas that would continue up to today. If you are interested in a more detailed look at the film, let me direct you to my post on the 30 Years On Project. This movie is a delightful summer entertainment, and holds up pretty well.

First lets talk about Alfonso Arau's part in the film. He plays the role of a drug smuggler, who controls the local area that Romance Writer, Joan Wilder (Turner) and her guide/partner, Jack Colton (Douglas) find themselves stuck in. Through one of those wonderful movie coincidences, he knows her work and becomes a quick ally in her goal of escaping from the evil pursuers that are hot on their trail. The vast majority of his role involves him grinning as he drives them in his off road truck through the fields and jungles as they are chased by jeeps with machine guns.  Arau is probably not in the movie for more than seven or eight minutes, but like most good character actors, he makes those minutes count. 

I also have to say that Kathleen Turner was the draw in the film. Douglas was the producer and first listed star on the film, but Turner is the character that we spend the most time with. She starts off as a mousy pawn in the story, but as her successes in confronting complications grow, so does her self confidence and natural beauty. By the end of the film, she has truly become the heroine of her own romance novels. It's pretty obvious that Michael Douglas also worked in the film as adventurer Colton. This movie set him up as a romantic lead for the next twenty years, in thrillers and dramas as well as comedies. 

The cast also included Danny DeVito, who was a buddy of Michael Douglas after appearing in the Academy Award winning "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" which Douglas produced. He later directed both of the stars in the excellent but sometimes forgotten "War of the Roses". So it was a fortuitous collaboration for all involved. Director Robert Zemeckis had had a hand in three films that had bombed for Steven Spielberg and his production company. He took this job to try and get a hit outside of the Spielberg umbrella, so his career did not dissipate. Robert Rodriguez told us as part of his introduction to the film that Zemeckis had said this was the hardest location shoot he had ever done, and that he instructed his agent that if ever he was given a script that started "Exterior:   A vast Jungle", the agent should just automatically pass. 

The Three Amigos !  

The second of our Double Features includes a much bigger role for Alfonso Arau. He is the antagonist in the story, a bandit named El Guapo, modelled after the character played by Eli Wallach in "The Magnificent Seven". Of course this is a comedy, so the character will have a number of features that would not likely appear in a real bandit of this ilk, including a love of sweaters. John Landis directed this film and it is a loose adaption of "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Seven Samurai". A village, terrorized by a gang of bandits, seeks outsiders as defenders. The conceit in this film is that the woman who contacts the supposed heroes, has misunderstood what a movie is (the film is set in 1916). The three actors who star in a series of Westerns set in Mexico during the silent film era, are playing landowners who are heroically on the side of peasants in many of their films. When the actors lose their jobs at the studio, they take up an ambiguous offer from the woman in the village, a heavily edited telegram leads them to think they are putting on a show, not that they are confronting real criminals.

Of course the film is pretty silly at times. There is a singing bush, a singing tortoise and singing horses in the film. There is also an invisible swordsman, and the actors skills as action stars in the movies, turn out to be useful. The cross cultural jokes are not offensive, and it's hard to be put off by anything the three leads do. Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short  are the three actors who get in over their heads. The sequence where they realize the reality of their situation is quite amusing, and they do a nice cowardly retreat that will provoke a smile or two. The consistent smile generator however is the Amigos salute, you can probably do it yourself if you have seen the movie. 

Alfonzo Arau gets to ham it up as the leader of the bandit gang, and he gets a lot of mileage out of his broad smile and subdued line readings. If you have seen this movie before, you will probably remember the dialogue that features a "plethora" of jokes about the meaning of the word. Actor Tony Plana plays "Jefe" the second in command to "El Guapo" and he and Arau have some nice timing in their scenes together. 

This is a lightweight movie, that has nothing on it's mind other than making us laugh at some absurdities, and it does that just fine. It is the only screenwriting credit that composer/songwriter Randy Newman has, that may be in large part because of the songs he contributed to the story, although he is also credited as contributing to the payoff joke of the birthday presents for El Guapo, so I won't say he was not writing outside of the songs. 

It was a minor hit at Christmas time in the year of it's release, but it has never been a critical favorite. It is probably fair to say, that like a lot of other 1980s movies, it achieved a reputation because of repeated cable showings and now has a cult following. It's nonsensical and sweet, with enough energy for it's running time. 

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-First Blood

Sunday night was another presentation by Robert Rodriguez for the Paramount Summer Classic Film Series, this time the featured film was 1982's "First Blood". This Sylvester Stallone starring vehicle,  led to numerous sequels, and created a cultural touchstone that's been with us for four decades now. Rodriguez has a friendship with Sylvester Stallone, and like most of those kids from 1982, he saw this movie and immediately fell in love with the character of John Rambo and wanted to be him.

The introduction Rodriguez provided was fine, but it was more fully supplemented this time with some video clips from his own director series that is available online. He did share some stories about Stallone that we're not part of the video presentation, for instance the fact that Stallone didn't care for an actor in the Rambo film that was set in Burma. That might be why the moment that he shoves him up against the side of the boat looks so real. Of course that's a story for us, not one that he wants to put in the series which might make Stallone look petty.

I have seen all of the Rambo films, but I don't think Amanda had. This one was new to her completely, and she enjoyed it quite well. David Caruso who appears as Mitch, one of the deputies in the small town that John Rambo encounters, was not even recognizable to her, in spite of the fact that she is watched all the episodes and all of the seasons of CSI Miami. He was so young when he did this part he looks like a baby. She also thought that Brian Dennehy aged substantially between this film and Silverado 3 years later. That's not nearly as noticeable to me, but I'm an old guy who's used to a few extra pounds here and there.

One of the things that Rodriguez pointed out was that Stallone made significant contributions to the screenplay of First Blood. Including taking John Rambo out of the role of villain and putting that label on the sheriff played by Dennehy. It's a well-known story that Kirk Douglas walked away from the part that was ultimately played by Richard Crenna, because he thought that Rambo should die at the end of the movie. That appears to have been another Stallone modification.

This film was the start of a string of 1980s successes for Stallone in the action genre. Rodriguez also pointed out how Sylvester Stallone and his success created a competition with Arnold Schwarzenegger that would not start to even out until Stallone's 1990s films started to flag, while Schwarzenegger became increasingly marketable. The character of John Rambo however, continued to be a vein that Stallone could tap into. At one point when Rodriguez pointed out to his friend that Stallone hadn't directed a film for a dozen years, Sly was taken by aback. Just a couple of years later he picked up the character again for the brutal 2008 "Rambo", once again establishing is bona fides as an action director as well as star.

The original "First Blood" continues to be the best in my mind because it is the least cliched and the one that is most tied into reality. Many of the complaints made by Rambo at the climax of the film when he has his breakdown we're true. Veterans of the Vietnam War were disrespected, many of them suffered from exposure to dangerous chemicals during the war, and as exemplified by John Rambo himself, many of them suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Some of the flashback scenes in this movie give us a sense of why Rambo reacts the way he does to the abuse from the local fascists in the police department in this small Washington town.

What most people remember from the movie however, are the clever ways that Rambo gets the best of the local law enforcement agencies and National Guard. The training that he received as a behind enemy lines commando, certainly exceeds that of a local law enforcement agency. When Richard Crenna shows up and explains that he's not there to save Rambo from them but rather to save them from Rambo, we know how badass this is going to be. John crawls through caves filled with rats, jumps into trees off of cliffs in order to escape being shot, and disguises himself in a half dozen different ways to get the better of his pursuers.

The fact that John Rambo doesn't have an exit strategy for his temper tantrum is a little problematic to the story. But that's why Colonel Troutman has shown up in the guise of Richard Crenna. We can have some exposition, and ultimately a peaceful resolution that makes some sense. Of course not before we've had enough explosions, bullets, and knife injuries to fill three other movies. That's the kind of sugar Rambo likes.

Paramount Classic Film Series-Robert Rodriguez Presents Terminator 2

 

We are more than halfway through the Summer Classic Film Series at the Paramount Theater, and I have fallen behind in my posts on the films that I have seen there. Saturday last, I went to the screening of Terminator 2 presented by Robert Rodriguez. The local film maker and Austin hero, has picked several films for the Summer Series and is introducing them himself. He tries to choose films that he can give some personal insight to, often through his connection to the film makers that he has worked with or connected to. These week we got some James Cameron stories. 

I loved the story he told about meeting James Cameron. Back in 1994, he ran into his close friend film maker Guillermo del Toro, at the Virgin Megastore in Hollywood. Del Toro was meeting his own friend at the location and asker Robert if he would like to meet his buddy James. Of course, and when they were talking, Rodriguez mentioned that he was working with a new Steadicam and Cameron said he had one of those, but he wasn't using it to make a film, he was taking it apart to re-engineer and improve it. He told a similar story about visiting Cameron at his home and finding an Avid editing complex, not just one device, set up in a giant screening room. I like thew fact that all three directors met at the Virgin Mega Store in Hollywood. It had the best Laserdisc Sales set up of any retailer and I visited there often. 

"Terminator 2" was the biggest movie of it's year and the most expensive movie ever made up to that point. I have always preferred the original film over the sequel, not for any defect in "Judgement Day", but because the tools used in making the first film are just more meaningful to me. The stop motion animation, the puppetry are all so cool. Terminator 2 ups the ante on effects, and although it uses some of the first really dynamic digital effects, there are still a plethora of  practical effects and make up in the film.

The brilliant twist was to turn the original model of a Terminator into an ally rather than just the antagonist. Kyle Reese still kicks ass but having your own terminator as a protector is just awesome and Cameron, Schwarzenegger and Edward Furlong have a great time playing with that concept in the movie. I mentioned practical effects a minute ago, maybe the greatest of these was the way co-star Linda Hamilton sculpted her body to become the bad ass no nonsense momma bear in the film. Also, when you see the doubles in the film, Hamilton at the end and the security guard at the mental hospital, Cameron used a really old school tool, twin siblings. 

I did not have my shirts in time for the screening, they arrived  Monday, so let's just pretend I was at the club when a gunfight broke out and i was lucky to get out of TechNoir and make it over to the theater to see the movie. 

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

 

Once again we are back at the Paramount for another Summer Classic film. This time it was the first film of this season in the "Robert Rodriguez Presents Series", "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan". Local hero Director Robert Rodriguez chooses films that he was inspired by or has some connection to and then introduces them with behind the scenes stories and tidbits about the actors. The villain in this film was played by Ricardo Montalban, who made a couple of the "Spy Kids" movies with Rodriguez. The director noted how the question always comes up about Ricardo's physique and whether he wore a prosthetic chest piece. That is in fact Montalban's own chest, and the costume designer was so impressed with his appearance, they created costumes that accentuated his look.

Director Rodriguez also recounted the sad history of Montalban's back injury and the surgery years later that confined him to a wheelchair. Of course movie magic allowed the actor to run in one of the "Spy Kids" films and that was a nice moment that he shared with us. The director has a long list of notes in a notebook that he refers to as he prowls the stage like a tiger, not from anxiety but rather enthusiasm. He surveyed the audience and found one person who saw Star Trek II when it opened, at the same theater he had done so back in San Antonio in 1982. That audience member was presented with a nice picture book about the making of the movie. I suspect it was also autographed by our host.

"The Wrath of Khan" was a follow up to "Star Trek the Motion Picture", which was financially profitable but at a huge cost. The sequel was done with a miniscule budget in comparison, and the production was taken over by the TV unit of Paramount to hold down costs. Still, there are several great production moments in the movie, including the battles between the two starships and the Genesis Project video. There are several spots where shots are cribbed from the first movie but it is not egregious. The fact that "Khan" was a continuation of an original series episode was discussed and Rodriguez had edited together a ten minute version of the episode for us to watch before the movie.

You can read my thoughts on the movie here, and  here, and here. This is a movie that I adore and every chance to see it on the big screen should be jumped at. There are two things I would like to add about the screening. Robert Rodriguez explained that another way to save costs was by skipping the more expensive Jerry Goldsmith as the film composer and hiring James Horner. The future Academy Award winning composer was the go to Roger Corman and Star Trek II was his big break. Ironically, Director Nicolas Myer said he was hired because they could not afford Goldsmith, but when Meyer returned to the series for Star Trek VI, they could no longer afford Horner.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the beautiful artwork done by Bob Peak. The prolific film poster illustrator did images for all of the original cast movies, but his work on Trek II was superb. So good in fact, that I draped myself in it for the Sunday night show. 

Spy Kids Armageddon

 

A few weeks ago, at the Paramount Summer Film Classic screening of "Clash of the Titans", Director Robert Rodriguez previewed for us the above trailer. The film is set to premier on Netflix later this week, but we were inviter to the World Premier last night at the Paramount here in Austin. The audience was packed with kids and people who had worked on the film and the house was raucous. The film was shot in Austin and the main contributors are members of the Rodriguez family. 

The film is the fifth in the franchise and it does not stray far from the formulas that came before it. Two young kids get involved in a spy plot because their parents are spies. They accidentally release a video game virus that combines with a program partially developed by Dad that will allow the designer to control all electronic mechanisms. The become spies themselves and fight back using the tech that has been given to their parents by the spy agency they work for. 

One of the reasons that the audience at the "Clash of the Titans" was specifically invited is because the film is filled with Ray Harryhausen images, including sword wielding skeletons and crab like robots. This is a lot of fun and reinforces the fantasy elements as much as the gadgets do. The story is thin, like a kids film is likely to be, but it does have some values about family that are certainly admirable. It is clear this is a movie for families to enjoy together. The fact that parents were at the show last night, who had grown up watching the original films, and they were now bringing their own children to the series is part of the reason Rodriguez has returned to the stories.

 

We had a great time and the movie is light and breezy, so go ahead and stream it when it drops this week.

  

What's Up Doc?-Paramount Classic Film Series Finale

 

The Summer Movie Series at the Paramount Theater finished off on Saturday with one of the most enjoyable movie experiences of the summer. Director and local hero Robert Rodriguez again hosted an event that he programmed. The idea that a Barbara  Streisand comedy from 1972 was his selection is intriguing, but it was easy to understand when he revealed why. This was a family favorite of his parents when he was young and they were big fans of the singer/avtress. After the film Rodrieguez shared some stories that I will share at the end of this post.

Director Peter Bogdanovich had an amazing trifecta of films to launch the decade of the 1970s. "The Last Picture Show", "What's Up Doc?" and "Paper Moon" were all critical smashes and financial successes. "What's Up Doc?" may be the most unusal of the three films because it mines the classic screwball comedies of the 1930s for it's material and sensibility. "Bringing Up Baby" and "Ball of Fire" are a couple of the films that this movie cribs from, and it does so quite effectively. Slapstick is an art that does not alwasys get much credit because some see it as easy humor, but ask anyone who has participated in a play or movie that is a slapstick and you will find that timing is the essential ingredient to make things work. The actors and plot points have to synchronize or else the result will be painful rather than joyous.

Fortunately, Bogdanovich found three essential actors to carry off this elaborate farce and make us laugh in delight. Ryan O'Neil has been criticized for years as a dull actor who got by on his looks and the huge success of "Love Story". Well anyone seeing this film will know he was capable of being an hysterical straight man and counterpart to the crazed characters he was playing against. Barbara Streisand was a Broadway sensation in comedic roles and transitioned to movies smoothly, and with her fast paced delivery, you will be reminded of Rosalind Russel in "His Girl Friday". She has to do most of the heavy lifting on the comedy, but carries it off with grace and perfect timing. Finally, in her first film role, Madaline Kahn, practically steals the move in the gender reversed Ralph Bellamy part. Kahn shines so much in this film that you just knew she was going to be a comedy star.

When Robert Rodriguez talked about the film after it was done playing, he outlined the fact that the comedy bits all centered around five particular scenes. The sequence in the drug store is all about the two leads and they completly own the scene with their by play and word games. The scene in Howard Bannister's hotel room, that ends with it being completely destroyed is a master class in building mayhem. The scene though, that most people will remember is the elaborate chase sequence through San Francisco on a bicycle with taxis and town cars in pursuit. There is a wonderfully choregraphed piece with a large pane of glass that comes close to destruction by the vehicles and of course the payoff is that it gets done in by something else. 

The theater must have had six or seven hundred people filling the seats on Saturaday, but surveying the audience would tell you less about the capacity than listening would. The sound of laughter was loud and it was consistent. The audience was laughing at the jokes and stunts in the moments that were planned by the film makers, and the combination reminds me so much of why seeing a movie with an audience is the reason I love films so much. The shared experience and communal response is not something that gets replicated, even if you are having a watch party at home with your friends. Six hundred people, laughing together is a wonderful sound.

Our host came out after the movie and talked about how the film was a family favorite. He also told stories of becoming friends with Bogdanovich and a particularly delightful encounter he had, along with his parents, at the wedding of his friend Josh Brolin who is Barbara Streisand's step son. The fact that his Mom got to meet Steisand and that the star convered with her like they were old friends is just heartwarming. I was most amused by the bit of information about a stunt early in the film. As Barabara's character is being tracked by the camera as she approaches the hotel, she is nearly run over by a car in the street. That is followed up by a crash between two other vehicles. The budget was generous but they had to be careful about spending. Bogdanovich had the production crew rent two cars from an agencey and purchase the damage insurance that they always up sell customers with. They did the stunt and returned the cars the next day, and simply said there was an accident. That story got a big laugh out of all of us. 

We were fortunate to seel this movie back in 2017 at the TCM Film Festival, the late Peter Bogdonavich was there to be intervied about the film, so I have seen it twice with some expert commentary and incites, and both experiences have been worth savoring. This screening brought the Summer Classic Film Seroes to a close. This was the 49th year the Paramount Theater has done this film series, but it was my first. I made it to twenty-five screenings it the theater this summer, and I was able to attend four of the five films that Robert Rodriguez presented. It was a spectacular experienec and I look forward to the Halloween and Christmas Series as well. You can bet I will be back for year 50 of the terrific tradition. 

Clash of the Titans-Paramount Summer Classic Film Series

 

I have been a fan of Ray Harryhausen since I can ever remember seeing a movie. "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" played on the Saturday Night Creature Feature on KHJ TV Channel 9, sometime in the mid-sixties and that's where it started. "Mysterious Island" was always my favorite although "Jason and the Argonauts would give it a fierce fight in my heart. The stop motion effects in movies always felt magical to me, even when they were not always convincing, I think that's what a child's imagination can fix. I still prefer the motion effects tauntauns in "The Empire Strikes Back" to the CGI monsters of the Star Wars Prequels. 

Yesterday at the Paramount Theater in Austin, the Summer Classic Film Series offered Harryhausen's final film, "Clash of the Titans" as a matinee feature, and it was part of the 🎬 Robert Rodriguez Presents, series where Austin based filmmaker Robert Rodriguez introduces the films he has chosen and shares some information about the movie and the people who made it. As part of his presentation, he had a set of pictures that he shared with the audience, from one of his film sets, where Ray Harryhausen had come by to watch him work. Seeing the smiles on the faces of the people making the movie, including Quentin Tarantino and Tom Savini, as well as Rodriguez,  tells you everything about how these contemporary movie people felt about Mr. Harryhausen and his work. He also shared some clips from his soon to Debut on Netflix Spy Kids Movie. It features several scenes with creatures that are clearly inspired by Harryhausen's work. 

"Clash of the Titans" tells the story of Perseus, the favored son of Zeus, who has been cast adrift with his mother by an angry grandfather, the King of Argos. Zeus intervenes, and has Argos destroyed and Perseus saved, so that he can meet his ultimate destiny. The gods and goddesses of Olympus are played by well known actors, including Laurence Olivier himself portraying Zeus. Jealous Goddesses play tricks on the character, putting him in a series of dangerous situations but also providing him with tools to face those situations with.

Basically, the film is a set of events that allow Harryhausen to show off his technique. Perseus battles Calibos, each of them captures Pegasus at some point, a giant Vulture picks up and delivers Andromeda in her dream state,  scorpions and other monsters need to be defeated. The ultimate goal is for Perseus to obtain the head of  Medusa to use against the Kraken which will soon be set on the city of Joppa, home to Andromeda and her mother Cassiopeia. It's all very convoluted with the actors on Olympus doing very little except standing around on the set. There is plenty of wanton destruction in the film and the loyal soldiers of Joppa who accompany Perseus on his mission are decimated by the time the climax of the film shows up.

Magic helmets that create invisibility, swords that can cleave marble and a mechanical owl with intelligence are all assets that Perseus uses and that Harryhausen gets a chance to integrate into the action at times. The pace of the film seems to lag between the animated pieces, and the actors are not particularly dynamic, but any moment something wonderous will show up so be patient, your eyes will be rewarded.

The 35mm print that was used to show the film has some color inconsistencies that have resulted from aging, but the effects look pretty vivid on film. The audience was appreciative and the host was excellent. My praise for the host is maybe a little biased, he asked the audience about when they had first seen the film and which other Harryhausen films we'd seen. I am not a shrinking violet, so I shouted out my answers and Rodriguez asked me in particular some follow ups. He then called me down to the front of the proscenium and awarded me a book on the Art of Ray Harryhausen. I am grateful for the gift and I was even more pleased when I got home and found that Mr. Rodriguez had signed the book as well. This was a terrific cap to my afternoon at the Paramount, which has essentially been my summer home this season. Still looking forward to some great films to finish August.   

The Road Warrior (Mad Max 2) Paramount's Summer Classic Films Series

 

The Video clip above was shared with us on Saturday Night by Director Robert Rodriguez. He has been hosting a set of five films during the Paramount Classic Film Series, and he was there to share some enthusiasm about this movie. As he explained it, he picked films to talk about because he'd had a chance to meet the film makers responsible for these movies that he loved. Miller was a guest on a talk show that Rodriguez hosts called "The Director's Chair". It was a visit by miller to SXSW a few years ago that gave Rodriguez a chance to sit down with Miller and talk about this film. I have included a video of that interview below.

The few minutes that our host spent talking with us about this film was plenty to get everyone stoked to see "The Road Warrior" as it was known in the States. I first saw this film in 1982, during one of the great cinema summers of all time. I had not seen the original "Mad Max" at that point, so the marketing of the film to an audience as if it were a stand alone feature seems to have worked, since the U.S. was the one territory that "mad Max" was not a big hit in. Rodriguez attributes the failure to the version that played in the states which had a dreadful dubbing, supposedly because we Americans would have a hard time making out the Australian dialect. There was very little chance for that to be a problem with this movie, which is told so visually, you could just about forgo the dialogue.

A dystopian story of survival, where fuel is the most precious resource and gangs of marauders kill and destroy their way across the countryside seeking it, "the Road Warrior " feels like a samurai movie, with a lone outcast coming to the rescue of a town of innocents besieged by the desert pirates. This movie is full of inventive moments and ideas. The Gyro Captain is an antagonist at first, and then an ally. The very idea of the mini-helicopter in this setting was really creative. Max has a symbiotic relationship with a dog that is paralleled by the Gyro Capitan and his snake. Of course the dog is a lot more appealing, and when he exits the story (off screen thankfully) the audience responds sympathetically. 

The film is forty years old but I still want to avoid spoilers if any of you have not seen it yet. I do need to say that the twist in the plot to escape at the end was very effective, and another one of those inventive elements that make this movie rise to a level far above the other exploitation material that it could be compared to from the era. In addition to the clever plot moments, the film has some of the greatest car stunts you are likely to encounter. They were done in camera, on set, not in a computer while someone was working from home. The video clip above hints at the dangerous nature of the stunts, but the real breathtaking moments are in the film. Cars levitate due to explosions. Bodies are thrown spinning through the air because of collisions, and jump scares pop out at 70 miles an hour. 

The climax of the film is a long chase sequence that is deservedly legendary. Mel Gibson is the stoic hero who drives a tanker seemingly filled with the black gold. as it is pursued by a horde of ruffians that are so distinctive, as to have been copied by a dozen other dystopian movies ever since. The whole chase is accentuated by a propulsive score from Australian composer Brian May. In an aside to the audience, Robert Rodriguez advised us not to listen to it when we are behind the wheel of a car, it might propel us to hit the accelerator inappropriately. 

I can rewatch this movie endlessly, it works so well and never feels like it gives you a moment to breathe, even though there are some interludes where there is no action taking place. The poster you see here, was one of two that I helped my friend Dan Hasegawa mount so he could display them in his office at Cal State Fullerton while he was in grad school. I never owned a copy of it and frankly that is to my shame because it is really spectacular. [The other Poster was for "Red Dawn" which I also wish I had.]

Max is an anti-hero in the traditional sense of the word. He does things that are heroic, but he does them for his own reasons, never out of a sense of altruism. One of the points that this movie makes is that such a world view is likely to be the end of civilization, so we ought to give a damn about something, even if it is cool on screen to be a little nihilistic. 

Rodriguez displaying a gift he received from Road Warrior Director George Miller. 

Escape from New York-Presented By Robert Rodriguez

 

Apparently, I should have chosen 1981 for my Summer Movie Season debate claim from the Lambcast a couple of weeks ago. After all, 1981 had "An American Werewolf in London", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Superman II" and this film, the one that turned Kurt Russell from a Disney kid into an action star. I saw "Escape From New York" in the Summer of 1981 at the El Rey Theater on Main Street in my hometown of Alhambra California. I'd been married for a year and I had summer off between semesters, while my poor wife had to work, so I saw this at a matinee by myself. I had to take her to see it the next week, because I knew she would love it, and sure enough, she fell completely for Kurt Russell.

This was a low budget film that made the most of every dollar they had to spend. John Carpenter was a viable director after his success with "Halloween" and he had made a TV biopic about Elvis with Kurt Russell, so it feels a little inevitable that they would work together in a completely original project. The premise is a simple one, Manhattan has been turned into a maximum security prison, where the convicts are dumped to make out the best they can. In the middle of an international crisis, the President's plane goes down in the area, and someone has to go in and recover him and the McGuffin he in possession of. Former military hero, now convict Snake Plissken, is given the job as a way of gaining his freedom.

Russell does his best Clint Eastwood impression throughout the film, and that makes sense because when Carpenter originally wrote the screenplay years earlier, he had envisioned Eastwood in the part. Snake is an anti-authoritarian, like John Carpenter himself, so the movie is full of middle fingers extended toward the government, convention, and anything else that was pissing off the director at the time. Russell plays Snake as a sullen outsider, who wisely trusts no one and is a lot more of a strategic thinker than he is given credit for.  He snarls and growls his way through the plot, remaining cool in the face of every obstacle he ends up against. 

The action scenes are not complicated but they are fun. As Snake tries to get away from a swarm of crazies at one point, he uses his weapon to improvise a door through a wall. It's a terrific looking action piece and emblematic of the kinds of creative moments Carpenter brings to the film. I combat sequence in a boxing ring is brutal without getting as gory as it would be if this film were made today. The nihilism evinced by Snake is downright compelling, even if it runs contrary to the world's best interest. He is so indifferent that he even puts off a moment of personal revenge because he is tired. His final FU to the whole affair is completely fitting with the character and the semi-dystopian world that all of the characters are operating in. 

Four years ago, we got to see the movie at the TCM Film Festival, with both Carpenter and Russel in attendance.

Richard Kirkham · Escape From New York TCM Interview

 

I'd been a fan of the TV critics Siskel and Ebert since I'd discovered their show on PBS a couple of years before this film came out. While putting this post together I came across their reviews for this film, and if you have a few minutes you can watch it here:

As much as I respected Roger Ebert, I usually found myself on the same side of the equation as Gene Siskel. This may have been the tipping point for me way back in 1981, and lasting until Siskel's death in 1999. 

Last night's screening was presented by Austin based film maker Robert Rodriguez. Before the movie screened he did a brief introduction and he surveyed the house on the number of people seeing the movie for the first time, for the first time on the big screen, and who had seen it in theaters in 1981. A couple people up front were given some nice gifts, one of which were some personal sketches done for the film and signed to Rodriguez by production designer Joe Alves (the production designer of Jaws also). He shared a bit about his personal relationship to the movie, and how he came to be acquainted with Carpenter and worked with Kurt Russell on "Grindhouse". He promised a few stories after the film as well. 

The most amusing one involved Kurt Russell. Rodriguez was showing off his love of "Escape From New York" to Russell when they were together one time by showing that the wallpaper on his phone was an image of Snake Plissken. Russell responded by getting out his own i-phone, fumbling with it for a minute and then asking Suri "Who am I" , to which Suri replied, "You are Snake Plissken". Kurt laughed and said, I'm the only one in the world who can do that.