Oldies - 2011

Blow-Up (1966, Michelangelo Antonioni) [53]

A film about an old adage rephrased? Life blows, then you disappear. Blow-Up takes place in mod London, home of 60's cool cats and young radicals. The protagonist is a bored but successful fashion photographer who begins a couple shoots and wanders around town for a day. Despite his general affluence he strikes us as a man not going places. The photographer does work but he's not particularly ambitious. He's content to walk out on a photo shoot in the middle, but doesn't really have anything better to do. He's got money, but doesn't have anything passionate to spend it on. He likes the company of women but doesn't attribute them any value. (Consider his second shoot with the five women; they are arranged diagonally, and Antonioni's camera begins the scene looking down the line, so the woman in front blocks all the others, before moving to the center where all the women are visible. From the photographer's perspective, women are all the same. From ours they are unique.) The photographer's interest is finally piqued when while strolling about he encounters something simple but refreshing - a woman with an older man frolicking about in the park. Or are they arguing? Exercising? Who knows. He satisfies his curiosity through photographing them, before the woman comes over and demands the film from his camera. He stalls, and they meet up later, where she tries to steal it from him. He catches on, and then she resorts to (fake/real) seducing him before leaving. Naturally he gives her the wrong roll (or keeps a duplicate or something) and decides to develop the pictures to see what, if anything, was worth her efforts to reclaim. He produces a magnifying glass, notices something sketchy, and makes a few blow-ups. This reveals a man hiding in the bushes, and later what seems to be a man lying prostrate on the ground. He suspects a murder, ruffles his feathers a bit trying to contact a friend of his, goes out to see the scene again where he notices a (fake/real) body. It's not there when he returns to the scene, and we're not meant to have more information than that. Perhaps the woman was part of a murder cover-up, or maybe she was a lover and she wanted back the proof of her tryst. The murder may have been separate or nonexistent to begin with. Whichever the case, the photographer cannot determine what has occurred or do anything about it so the film returns him to his limbo. Also seemingly irrelevant things happen like him buying an old propellor from an antique store and two women have a romp with him to try and enter into the modeling business; though I plan to rewatch the film I suspect if boiled down to its essentials it would last around an hour. The point of the film is nearly all condensed into the last scene. The photographer notices some college kids "rag"-ing, that is to say roaming around painted as mimes and indeed miming various things, for charity. They mime a tennis game, and the photographer plays along on his turn. As the camera abandons the mimes, we hear the sounds of a tennis match - the nonexistent game becoming real. The photographer, largely characterized as a man without cause or motive, though a purveyor of pretty pictures, is the opposite. He truly exists, but without reason, and disappears. An image without meaning doesn't even exist to begin with.

Hey Good Lookin' (1982, Ralph Bakshi) [72]

LAST BUT NOT LEAST. I haven't been very keen on Bakshi's feature film work but as with most directors, digging through the entire filmography results in buried treasure. Hey Good Lookin' is replete with most of Bakshi's creative vices - grotesque character designs, acid trip flights of fancy, titties poppin' out, and dream-state imagery - but he's wisely adopted a softer tone for his satire. The result is that his pessimistic style acts a critical underbelly to his otherwise nostalgic work. (In other works where the story has far more vitriol to dispense, his style comes across as a lens that reveals all the characters at their most vile rather than a necessary balancing act.)

Hey Good Lookin' is a brief but thorough glimpse of 50's car culture. The main character Vinnie is a greaser who heads a lackadaisical gang and spends a lot of nights on the town. His meticulous grooming shows his vanity, and his zipper-heavy leather jacket broadcasts his tough-guy attitude. We see him, his girl Roxanne, and other gang members and their girls hanging out on a basketball court making out. The joke here is how each couple's behavior is not motivated by infatuation or romance, but to prove social stature. Truthfully, Vinnie is rather insecure. He spars with his friend Crazy, telling Crazy to hit him in the face. Naturally, he blocks all of these punches but has no problem slapping Crazy in the face in return. Crazy blocks one of Vinnie's punches with a trash can lid and Vinnie becomes miffed about the entire stunt because the whole point of play-fighting in the first place was to build his image.

Hey Good Lookin' is very much a film that criticizes the exaltation of status. When Roxanne's father comes out to the gang's court to retrieve his daughter, he removes his belt and uses it like a whip to drive her home like he would a horse and carriage. Because he has no belt, he drops his pants; this gives the gang a good laugh and visually demonstrates to us how he has lost status through his daughter's actions. The film's main plot involves tensions between Vinnie's gang and another, and how this eventually leads to a rumble. We begin to notice that Vinnie, although still fixated on status, puts self-preservation first when push comes to shove. When Crazy shoots down a couple enemy gangers, Vinnie prepares to leave town to avoid the heat. When the rumble begins and he's still in town, he plays possum to save his life. In his absence, Crazy takes over the gang and usurps his status. As you might expect, Roxanne takes a liking to Crazy once he becomes leader.

Crazy's character does not display much forethought about potentially dangerous situations because he values both status and the appearance of status more. When he takes over the greaser gang, Bakshi transitions out of the scene with a graphic match on the sun. As the camera draws closer to the sun, the flames cackle more loudly. This represents that while Crazy has earned his place in the sun, he risks becoming an Icarus and flying too close in his efforts to obtain status.

Parts of acts two and three drag but Bakshi finishes strong. He flashes forward to present day where Vinnie and Roxanne meet at a club. They are no longer impudent teens but disillusioned fogeys. Vinnie's actions have not granted him any status, but he thinks regaining it will provide him fulfillment and he clings to the idea. Roxanne's presence reminds him of what he formerly had and he is embittered. He remarks "turn a woman upside-down and they're all the same" - if status is something only some people have, by definition everyone else must have nothing. Nevertheless, genuine feelings of romance linger between the pair. Decades he later he understands pursuit of status is the quest of the young and foolish, and chooses to accept the equally abject Roxanne because she makes him happy.

The Hill (1965, Sidney Lumet) [65]

Sean Connery and four other fellows arrive together at a British disciplinary camp in the Libyan Desert intended for soldiers found guilty of petty crimes. The goal is to break down the men's spirits and rebuild them in the image of a decent, loyal soldier worthy of Her Majesty's army. They are headed by Staff Sergeant Williams, also new to the boot camp, who has little intention of expunging the men's weakness as he stands to profit by it through his career. The Hill refers to an artificial hill constructed in the middle of the camp where men as punishment are made to run up and down the hill (with their packs) until thoroughly exhausted. There are several scenes that show how the men begin to redeem themselves in spite of Staff Sergeant Williams's deplorable treatment. In one instance the men enjoy a laugh as they collapse on the hill, in unison as they reject one of Williams's dehumanizing modes of punishment: men who collapse on the hill are doused with water, but not by a superior officer - one of the troop is made to douse his own troopmate. The camera starts at a higher angle, figurative of men who have momentarily risen above undeserved authority. Their superiors climb the hill from the other side and stand atop it. The camera slowly descends while remaining pointed at the men on the hill. When it reaches ground level, the men are somewhat obscured by the other men who are wandering around below the hill. The superiors are still visible on the hill's peak; the natural order of the camp has resumed. The Hill contains strong 60's sentiments of questioning authority, as evidenced by Sean Connery. His crime is assaulting his CO, and we learn later that he did so because the man ordered his troop into a hopeless battle, where Connery took command and managed to shepherd some of his guys out of harm's way. This manifests itself during the climax, which like several other sections of the film displays an unwelcome flair for the melodramatic (though nowhere near Lumet's The Pawnbroker levels), where the full extent of Staff Sergeant Williams's loathsome behavior is made clear to the RSM. The man heard complaints of Williams earlier but did not act on them because of Williams's rank above his accusers. In the end, the vile Williams is disposed and the men are victorious, but they assault Williams after his denouncement in an act of vengeance, as Connery implores them this is not necessary. The men have conquered their hill, but rather than remain atop, they choose to go down it once more.

Twelve O'Clock High (1949, Henry King) [68]

Twelve O'Clock High is the story of the 918th Heavy Bombardment Group, a B-17 Flying Fortress unit in the Royal Air Force. The 918th was one of the first groups into combat; they sustained heavy losses, resulting in poor morale and then the reputation as a "hard luck" group. (The U.S. strategy of daylight bombing is one reason given - daylight bombing did increase the accuracy of bombing runs but resulted in more casualties.) Colonel Davenport is the commander of the 918th, and Brigadier General Frank Savage (Gregory Peck) relieves him of command and reassigns him to a different division when he expresses discontent at taking the 918th on a low altitude mission. (The colonel had become too emotionally bonded with his men.) Savage assumes command of the squadron and his notoriety amongst the men spreads as he treats them harshly. Savage demotes the Air Executive Officer, Colonel Ben Gately, for being AWOL during the change of command, and promotes Major Joe Cobb in his place. He assigns Gately to the "Leper Colony," a bomber where he plans to also assign the most substandard members of the 918th. All or most of the members of the 918th ask for transfers, but Savage requests that Group Adjutant Henry Stovall delay processing the transfers to buy some time. Meanwhile the 918th resume bombing runs and through Savage they do so with increased skill and discipline. They notice that several of their enemies ignore their division in favor of less capable ones. The group receives another morale boost during a mission where their group was the only successful group to actually bomb the target. Major General Patrick Pritchard had issued a recall order during this mission; Savage chose to ignore it and cited "radio failure" as the cause. He is chewed out for this, and word gets back to his troops. Some of the men still wish to transfer and Savage enlists Medal of Honor nominee Lieutenant Jesse Bishop to further improve morale. By the time the Inspector General arrives, Bishop has convinced the remaining men to withdraw their transfer requests. Savage also discovers that Gately has been hospitalized for flying missions with a chipped vertebra. Savage orders him not to go on any more missions, which helps mend relations between himself and Gately. Nevertheless, the war advances deeper into Germany and Savage begins to lose men under his command, including Bishop. Pritchard offers Savage a staff job at Bomber Command but Savage declines. (Pritchard's goal is to safeguard Savage, and this is consistent with the film's subtext.) During a mission where the 918th bomb a ball bearing factory, they lose six out of twenty-one planes. Savage witnesses Cobb's plane receive a direct flak hit and this has an emotional effect on him. Savage reinstates Gately as Air Exec in place of Cobb, but is not able to man his aircraft the next day when the 918th goes for a repeat run. Gately takes over. Savage becomes largely reticient and inert while the run takes place. He regains his composure when the division returns home, mutters a few words, and falls asleep. From this, we understand the depth of Savage's commitment to his men, despite his strict tutelage, and the emotional guilt he incurs by ordering many of them to their deaths in combat. This story is framed as a flashback, bookended between scenes where Stovall notices an identical toby jug to one displayed in the 918th's headquarters. Stovall buys the jug and bicycles out to the abandoned RAF airfield, where he leaves it as a tribute to Savage. He understands Savage's commitment to his men, and reciprocates this feeling of respect. Twelve O'Clock High is very much a film about men whose respect and attachment to one another is at odds with their obligations.