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

The Paramount Summer Classic Film Series finishes off with another presentation by Robert Rodriguez, of the film "What's Up Doc?" This is the same film that finished the summer series last year, and it was hosted by Rodriguez then as well. His presentation before the film continued to be interesting but it was not as elaborate as the introduction he gave last year, but it was just as enthusiastic. This is clearly a movie that he loves and is happy to share with the audience. While sitting in the theater which was packed, I listened to the sound of laughter coming from several hundred audience members, I was reminded about why seeing a movie in a theater with an audience matters. This kind of experience reminds us that we all can find something in common, and that we are human beings capable of enjoying a shared experience, even without interacting with one another. Of course since it was the closing night film, there were some special events that went along with the evening, and that did encourage us to interact with one another. Two guys we had met in the garage elevator of the parking structure across the street, were seated right behind us. There was a trivia contest going on and we teamed up with them to participate. I know I had a lot of fun, and I think they did as well. The fact that we came in second place was only mildly disappointing because we were one wrong answer off, and we'd guessed ourself out of the correct answer on one of the questions. Oh well, we still had the movie to look forward to.

At the time this movie was made Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal were huge stars in Hollywood. O'Neill was coming off of "Love Story" which was the biggest Blockbuster of 1970, and Streisand was an academy award-winning actress who also had huge successes with a variety of films in the previous four or five years. Director Peter Bogdanovich was also on a hot streak. This film he made to explicitly be a screwball comedy in the mode of the great 1930s films that he loved. Rodriguez told the story about how the original script ended up being rewritten, by Buck Henry, who apparently had a pretty good idea about what makes something funny.

The movie introduces us to Madeline Kahn, who would become a comic icon for the next 20 years. Her role in this part might be thought of as thankless, because her character is such a wet blanket. But she turns out to be a wet electric blanket, shocking us with how funny she could be while playing a drudge. She gets a surprising number of laughs as the straight man in the story. Of course she is surrounded by a cast of secondary characters who are equally good at getting laughs from some of their few moments on screen. Austin Pendleton and Kenneth Mars both delight us with their ridiculous delivery of some of Buck Henry's lines. Mars uses an accent that seems like it will show up again in "Young Frankenstein" a couple years later.

The slapstick in this film centers around four identical suitcases that all have varying degrees of valuables in them. One suitcase contains nothing but rocks, but they are important rocks. One suitcase is full of secret government documents revealing a scandal. Another suitcase is loaded with jewelry that belongs to a wealthy visitor to the hotel where everyone is staying. The final suitcase simply contains the personal items of our leading lady. The pursuit of these various suitcases, and the comedy of changing hotel rooms, opening and closing doors, and hiding under beds, in closets, and on window sills, is exactly the kind of humor that you would find in one of those old movies. Here it is just multiplied.

The climax of the film is a street chase thru the city of San Francisco. O'Neal and Streisand are on a delivery bicycle, careening down the hills,  crashing through a Chinatown street parade and generally causing havoc. Of course in the 1970s, there have to be car crashes, and there is an abundance of them from all the pursuing vehicles. The bit with the giant window pane is staged beautifully so that the payoff is much funnier than it would have been in someone else's hands. The rapid film style follows the same pattern as the patter in the first section of the film, with multiple points, finished off by a topper. Bogdanovich was a film scholar who understood how to read a scene. 

I saw this movie years ago on television, but I had very little memory of it. I have seen it the last three times, in a theater, with a packed audience and it is such a treat. I'm sad the Summer season is over but I am grateful for all the movies I saw at the Paramount in the last three months. This cherry on the top will have me thinking about next years programming, all Fall and Winter long. 

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-Streets of Fire

 

Let me Begin by telling you how excited I was to see this movie. When it showed up in the schedule for the summer series, I wrote it down in pen on a calendar, and put it in all of my electronic calendars, with a heavy emphasis on the date. I was not going to let anything else interfere with my ability to see this on the big screen. Since 1984 I have loved this film, for a whole variety of emotional issues. There is of course the nostalgia factor, because 1984 was not only one of the great years of film, it was my greatest year of films. I saw more films that year that have influenced me and made me want to go see another movie, than I have ever seen in any subsequent year. A second reason that I was so anxious to see the film, is that the music of the band in the movie, is mostly attributable to the late Jim Steinman, a writer and composer of epic rock arias. I've been a fan of his style of music since the original Meatloaf album "Bat Out of Hell". Finally one other reason that I was so anxious for this screening was that it was to be a 70 mm presentation at my favorite theater here in Texas. So that's how anxious I was to see the movie. Now I had bought tickets for a concert that was scheduled 2 weeks before. That show got postponed... to this date. I basically had to choose, and I chose this film.

It's not that the story is so fantastic, or that the performers are so compelling, since everybody is talking about the "vibes" in the world today, I will honestly say this is a vibe movie. The film is loaded with the kind of imagery that movie fans love. There is a combination of wet streets and neon lights, there are shadowy alleyways and gleaming diners, and everybody in the film is dressed in a way it is stylish as hell. And some of those styles look like they came right out of hell. This is a movie that thrives on its looks. The opening of the movie is a flash cut concert video which feature that driving propulsive song from the damsel in distress in this story. As she's singing in a near hypnotic state, we see the ominous motorcycle gang arriving in their town, entering the auditorium, and lurking in the shadows waiting for their moment. When Willem Dafoe is backlit and we can't see his face but only the ominous silhouette, we know danger is coming. When the light finally hits his face and reveals a demonic expression, we know that danger has truly arrived. This is the kind of visual artifice that director Walter Hill uses to tell his story throughout the film. The hero Tom Cody, arrives alone ss the sole rider on an elevated, train. Later in the movie, The Sorrells, a singing group who gets hijacked by the rescue team, perform an acapella song on a dimly lit bus. Hill knows how to take the environment and make it a character in the story, that happens repeatedly in this movie. There are two different bars, a diner, an auditorium, and a street, that are all important characters in the narrative. The fact that these sets sometimes outshine some of the actors is a deliberate choice to emphasize style. And boy is this movie stylish.

Most of the background characters in the film, dress as if it's 1955. They do it up with pizzazz. Bill Paxton plays a feckless character named Clyde, but regardless of whether he is a wimp or a stronger than expected person, he knows how to dress and put his hair up in a pompadour that would do any Elvis fan proud. This is a little ironic considering that last night I saw him dressed down as a punk with spiked hair in "The Terminator". His character could have been the same person, but just dressed differently. The costume of Willem Dafoe in the last half of the movie always gets a laugh, but as the movie goes on, it feels more and more ominous. Who needs a high-waisted vinyl set of waders? What the hell was he doing at Torchy's that required such an outfit? We never figure that out, but we do know that his character might very well have just been described as Satan. 

The film also features actors Rick Moranis and Amy Madigan as members of the rescue team. Madigan is great, as a soldier out of the army and looking for any kind of work that might fit with her skill set. She plays a tough character, with a no-nonsense attitude, but she never is going to be a threat to the relationship between the two separated lovers at the heart of the story. She might be a better match in temperament with Tom Cody, but is she makes clear he is not her type. The coded implication that she has a different sexual identity is not particularly subtle and probably fulfills a few too many stereotypes. Speaking of stereotypes, poor Rick Moranis is trapped as the belligerent buffoonish and nebish manager of the kidnapped singer that everybody is trying to free. He's also supposed to be something of a romantic rival to Tom Cody. That is just laughable on its face. He does what he can with a thankless role, but it is grating every time we have to listen to him b**** about something. If this film has a flaw, is the amount of time granted to his character Billy Fish.

If this were a straight action film, the fight near the end between Cody and his nemesis Raven, using sledgehammers, would be the climax of the movie. As I've already said though, the narrative here is less important than the emotions and the style. So it is the final song performed in front of a large audience as Cody makes his farewell from the scene, that is really the centerpiece of the last Act. "Tonight is What it Means to be Young", turned into the tagline for the movie, and it is a perfect summary of the attitude the film is taking. We see nobody in the film who looks like they're over the age of 30, or under the age of 20. This is a rock and roll fable designed to specifically stimulate the emotions of people in this age group. I'm happy to say that although I'm 30 years over that demographic, I still feel the way I did when I saw this movie in 1984 and I was in the prime age that it was shooting for. Once again I'll just say I love this movie and the vibe that it exudes. I'd watch it again tonight, because it makes me feel young.

The Terminator (1984)-Revisit 2024

 

I said it earlier this summer when I had the chance to see "Terminator 2" at the Paramount, frankly "Terminator" from 1984 was always my favorite of the films in the series. T2 has some great special effects and an exciting story, but the origin of The Terminator and the creativity required by a limited budget, make this version that I prefer. This was a terrific piece of entertainment from that great year 1984, and it fits in perfectly with its use of rear screen projection, stop motion, and puppetry. In addition there is some fantastic makeup work that goes along with the other effects to create a truly terrifying concept.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was just beginning to become the movie star that would ultimately dominate for the next 20 years. This was his second major role in a clearly commercial enterprise. After "Conan the Barbarian" two years earlier, it would have been easy to find himself stuck in fantasy films with muscular guys wearing furs, because that was all the rage in this period. Remember, he also made the sequel to Conan which came out earlier in this year, and the very next year he did "Red Sonja", so between those three films typecasting was about to become a problem for him. "The Terminator" showed that he was capable of more, even if it was as a robotic killer from the future.

Sometimes there's just a confluence of events that allows great things to grow from them. The connection between James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of those great connections. That connection started with this film. I'm still hoping for "True Lies 2".  However, watching the movie I was reminded about how many great moments there are which do not feature Arnold. There are secondary characters that people sometimes forget. Paul Winfield and Lance Henriksen are terrific as a pair of put upon cops, following up on a spree killing where the victims share a name. Henriksen's character just can't stop talking and making comments that feels slightly inappropriate at the end of a conversation. Winfield's captain looks at him askew, and seems to suggest "shut up!" with just a glance. Winfield is particularly sympathetic as he comforts Sarah Connor when she first arrives at the police station. We can almost believe that everything's going to be okay. Of course we know at this point that the police are in way over their heads. Sarah has to rediscover that, and the shootout at the police station is a forerunner of so many contemporary shootout sequences that we see in today's films. John Wick and Jason Statham clearly have been influenced by these scenes.

Michael Biehn is maybe the great underrated aspect of this movie. Clearly Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton are pivotal characters as the film series develops. It is the role of Kyle Reese, the soldier from the future, who arrives to protect Sarah Connor, that sets the standard for badass heroes and plot twists. Reese is just a man, fighting an unstoppable machine, but constantly finding ways to slow it down, and get the best of it. He and Sarah could have easily disappeared, but it is a human error on the part of the pursued victim, that allows the pursuer to track them down. Reese never loses his cool, and even as he's dying, he plays the badass. You can also clearly believe that he fell in love with the reputation and the Polaroid picture of Sarah Connor from the past. The fact that he becomes the father of the man who was his Commander is just one of those nice twists that come with time traveling stories and a creative like James Cameron.

There were a load of people at the screening at Alamo when we went. Many of them look like they had been in a theater 40 years ago when the movie first opened. Like me, they were experiencing a bit of nostalgia, but also the excitement that comes from seeing something that is really well made, and sells itself based on the innovative ideas and the creative shortcuts that the filmmakers took advantage of. As most of us know, these films will never stop playing, even if franchise follow-ups stop being produced. The best way to say it, is to simply the paraphrase,  "this will be back".

The Last Starfighter (1984) - Revisit 2014

 

The above is not the trailer for the film, rather it is the YouTube version of the podcast that we did on the LAMBcast a month ago. I also wrote about the screening we went to last year, and you cna check that out HERE. 

So there are no additional comments that I want to add at this time, but I will share a picture with you.

We have been recruited to defend the frontier against Xur and the Kodan Armada

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series- 2001: A Space Odyssey

 

Every time I see this movie I am floored by the accomplishment of the technicians, craftsmen and especially the director of this film. I have written about the movie a couple of times before. You can read my comments from last year's screening at the Paramount Theater here. I have a more extensive look at the film from a screening I took my daughter to at the Egyptian Theater in 2016. It still befuddles me how she can love movies, the way I do, but not love this film. As the programmer mentioned in his introduction, everyone will see something different in the movie, and probably different every time they see it.

This time around, I thought I might talk a bit about 2001 as a horror story. It may not be a slasher film in the traditional sense, and there is no monster per se in the film, except for the A.I. at the heart of the main part of the film. The HAL 9000 is the apex of computer technology in the era of the film. Referred to as "Hal", it really feels like a crewman aboard the Discovery. Along with Dave Bowman and Frank Poole, Hal works and interacts with the team onboard like any other soul. In fact at times, his warm voice and cheerful demeanor in playing chess, doing his psyche profiles of the crew and diagnosing problems with the telecommunication array, Hal can feel less mechanical than the speech and appearance of his human compatriots.  We realize however, in the first inkling of the horror to come, that Hal has his own agenda, when he eavesdrops on Frank and Dave when they isolate themselves in one of the pods. This perfect intermission pause lets us ponder the danger ahead. 

Hal turns out to be a spree killer. There is something wrong with him despite the vaunted reputation of the 9000 series of computers. His protestations that he is only acting in the best interest of the mission by preventing Dave and Frank from shutting down his higher level capacities, is really just a cover for killing to protect his self image. He cannot accept the fact that he has made a mistake somewhere, and that it is not human error that accounts for that failure. He does not need to kill the three crewman in hibernation to prevent his shutdown, and they are an essential part of the mission. So his action is a reflex to being discovered as a fraud. The AI in Hal has become a little too human. 

The dramatic sequence where Hal shuts down the life support for the sleeping crew is horrifying without any overt violence and no blood at all. The more direct murder of Frank Poole is more visually engaging and intellectually cruel, but the starkest element of the whole thing, which really turns this section into a horror film, at least for a moment, is when he is confronted by Dave in the excursion pod. Not yet realizing what Hal has done, Dave attempts to rescue Frank, and learns upon his return to the ship that Hal will no longer cooperate with him. By letting Dave remain stuck in the pod without any recourse, it is as if he has buried him alive and he is walking away without a second thought. 

Hal once again tries to gain back some humanity, when Dave finds a way to defeat Hal's attempted murder. Hal grovels and pleads for understanding. In essence he is begging for his life. Dave becomes a vindictive avenger, but it is only an act of self preservation. He won't kill Hal without at least allowing him a human moment, like the one Hal tried to deny him. If this interpretation seems unreasonable to you, contrast this movie with Kubrick's version of "The Shining". Hal Kills more people than Jack Torrance does, and he is as evil in his banality as Jack was in his fever dreams.

Like I said, there are a myriad of ways to see this film, I just thought I'd take a different journey for this screening. I had a marvelous time, in part because I received several comments from other audience members on my shirt. In fact, the compliment I received allowed me to engage in a nice conversation with Mark and his daughter Nari, who were seated right behind me. He asked if he could take a picture on my shirt and I asked him to take one for me. Mari had not seen the whole film before last night. Her previous attempt did not make it to the intermission and the home viewing experience according to her was marred by her own cell phone distraction. She seemed sufficiently satisfied at the end of the movie, so it's likely Mark will get the pleasure of seeing this again with his daughter. I wish I could say the same about my own kid. Oh well, be your own person, but you are missing out on something here. 

 

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-The Searchers

 

We missed "The Searchers" at the TCM Film Festival this year because it was opposite to "Chinatown". I am so thankful that Steven Jannise and the Paramount Programmed it for their 70mm week, because that was the format we missed when we were in Los Angeles. This iconic western has one of the all time great John Wayne performances, and it is another of his many collaborations with the great John Ford.

Ethan Edwards (Wayne) is a returning Civil War vet, from the losing side, who reconnects with his brother's family in Texas. Ethan is a hard case in regard to an adopted nephew, who has some of the Native American blood that ran through the veins of the Indians who killed Ethan's parents. Marty, has been considered a brother and son to Aaron and Martha and their children. Marty is played by Jeffrey Hunter, who I knew best as Captain Christopher Pike in the pilot for Star Trek. His easy going manner and sincerity become a counterpoint to Ethan during the film. Ethan is wise and sly and plays his cards close to the vest. Like Sonny Corleone, Marty sometimes lets people outside of the family know what he is thinking, resulting in complications. 

The thing they are searching for is the remaining sister of the family, everyone else having been slaughtered in an Indian raid while Ethan and Marty were with a posse pursuing a false lead. The young Debbie has been taken by a Chief they learn is named "Scar", and for five years, they pursue rumors, stories and tips about the white girl and the Indian Chief who has taken her into his tribe. Wayne's performance is frequently grim for several plot related reasons. It is strongly suggested that he carried a torch for his sister-in-law, and one of the reasons he was slow to return after the was was this unstated love. It also appears that he has been a bit of a tough guy on the trail, maybe benefiting from some less than savory means of making a living, although he does seem to have a code which would preclude anything we might thing of as unethical.

Most of the movie is filmed in Monument Valley and it looks spectacular in color. Ford seemed to really love that part of the country and made it the backdrop in several of his films. The hostility of the Indian tribes is not the only problem that Ethan and Marty face on the trail. In addition to inclement weather, they encounter bushwhacking merchants, overzealous Texas Rangers and domestic conflict at home. It seems that Mary and Laurie, from the neighboring homestead, have a less than well defined romantic relationship. Each of them finds themselves involved with a different partner that they truly don't want.  There is a lot of humor in the film, and most of it comes from their tempestuous long distance love affair.

Ethan and Marty are also at cross purposes in regard to Debbie. Both of them want to save her from captivity and sexual slavery as one of Scar's wives, but they have completely different ideas about what that means. Ethan's bitterness at the loss of his family drives hatred toward the Indians and their path. There are two or three action sequences where a fight between the Searchers and Indian warriors take place. Ethan is in his natural environment in those moments.  He lets his hatred overcome him when plotting against Scar. Marty is the hopeful optimist who wants to reunite his sister with the homelife that he knows. The main conflict in the end is between he and Ethan and also Ethan's inner selves. At the resolution, Ethan remains an outsider, in spite of the ultimate decision he makes.This is a deep thought western, not just a shoot'em up. So glad to see it on the big screen and in 70 mm.

Paramount Summer Classic Film Series-Josie and the Pussycats

 

When I first saw this movie in 2001, I thought it was a fantastic satire of pop culture and consumerism. My opinion was not widely shared, as the film was a big flop and to rub dirt in the wound, prominent critic Roger Ebert gave the movie half a star as it's rating. I think after losing Gene Siskel as a partner, Roger got an inflated opinion of his own opinion, and drifted from the audience a little to often. This movie is a pop confection with a nice subverted message about pop culture, and the most well known film critic of his time, missed the whole point. 

Rather than rebut the review of the long gone Mr. Ebert, I plan on explaining my point of view, right here, right now. There are several ways that you can process the film, and I am going to talk about three of them. The first and most elemental take on the movie is that it is a teen comedy, made primarily for young girls and enlightened boys. Josie, Val, and Melody are three girls from a midwestern town, dreaming of rock stardom but fated to play at the bowling alley, mostly on spec. Josie has a crush on longtime guy pal Alan M, but is flummoxed about saying anything, just as he is. This is your usual case of pluralistic ignorance in a romantic comedy. By the end of the story will they overcome their mutual intimidation and get together? Of course they will, but guess what, this is barely the C plot in the story. If you are focusing on romantic comedy, you are going to miss the point of the film. Mel and Val don't get romantic counterparts, Alan M is mostly superfluous to the story, the usual rom-com tropes are missing, deliberately so. That is so not what the movie is about. 

The second way of looking at the film is as a rags to riches rise of a pop band. "The Pussycats" struggle to find a place in the music industry, and break through the barriers they encounter with gumption and talent. This is a little closer to the real story of the film because so much of the movie involves the songs and performances that the band create. There are recording sessions, promotional videos for MTV, and stage shows for audiences primed by their love of the music. Anyone who says the songs are not good enough to produce success, much less be entertaining, has not heard any pop music since 1962. Maybe every song is not a banger, but "Three Small Words", "Pretend to be Nice" and "Spin Around" are the kinds of tunes that could easily form the backbone of an album.  Each of those tunes could be the encore song for a popular girl band at the turn of the century. Song writers Adan Schlesinger, Adam Duritz and Kenneth 'Babyface' Edmonds are all part of the ensemble of producers, writers and music professionals, who made sure that the songs of the Pussycats were credible pop tunes. I will put their credibility and my personal taste, up against any of the naysayers out there. 

Still, in spite of the fact that the rise to stardom plotline is substantial, it is not the main paradigm by which the film can be judged. The third and maybe most important element of the film is the satire on consumerism and the influence of the media on teen culture. This film suggests a secret cabal of product manufacturers, government, and technical media wizardry could drive the economy with the money from teens. This is before Facebook, You Tube, and Twitter existed. The writers of this film saw that the rise of media influence would be the strongest force for consumption in the future. Everyone out there making a career as an influencer, can look at this movie and say, "that's how it starts". Replace the Head of the Record Company, Fiona, and her toady assistant Wyatt, with some You Tubers and a couple of media analysts, and you have the world of today.  (Of course none of them are as much fun as Parker Posey and Alan Cummings)

The whole opening segment with the boy band is a commercial for dozens of products, satirically.  That joke is extended through the whole movie. Amazingly enough, these were not paid placements, like they would have been in a hundred other movies, they were targets (Including Target) of the film makers suspicion of consumer manipulation. If you think "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nirvana was cutting criticism of youth consumerism, how could everyone miss the savagely aggressive takedown of product placement, teen fashion trends and celebrity worship that this movie took on? I don't know, but somehow they did. 

If the rise of Boy Bands, manufactured by record companies and supplemented by autotune and other technologies is a sore point with music lovers, why is it that the "DuJour" song "Backdoor Lover" from the fictional band in this film, not become a rallying cry against manufactured music? It is a great takedown of the form, and it is also hysterical. There might be some PC resistance to it these days, but a quarter of a century ago, it would be embraced by hipsters as ironically ideal.

The three girls in the power trio that make up the Pussycats are spot on. Rachel Leigh Cook has that punk girl next door quality. She has attitude but not bitterness and she is cute as heck. Rosario Dawson has been the thinking mans sex symbol for two decades now. She is smart, tough and attractive and her character is in tune with what is going on from the beginning. Tara Reid, was the staple hot chick of 90s movies and she is delightfully dingy and sweet as Melody, who loves puppies and plays the drums with gusto. 

"Josie and the Pussycats" has all the markings of a cult film. It was a flop initially, it has undergone re-evaluation and it has a devoted following of fans who are willing to humiliate themselves to show their love. That was evident Sunday Night as the audience was full of people wearing their cat ears through the whole movie. Me Included. I am not a late arrival to the cult, I could easily be the founder.  I have shouted praise for this movie for a long time. Back in 2013, I featured it in one of my posts "Movies I Want Everyone to See".