Monthly Archives: November 2020

Documentary Review: Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist

This doc is exactly what it says on the tin, it is an hour and forty minutes of director William Friedkin speaking on The Exorcist the 1973 film he directed that terrified a nation and a world.

With supplemental footage from the movie and production documentarian Alexandre Philippe constructs an intimate discussion by Friedkin about one of his most well-known and iconic films. Friedkin’s voice, with the exception of one off-screen question from Phillippe, guides us through not only some of the production of The Exorcist including casting that was eventually discarded after Jason Miller convinced Friedkin to hire him as Father Karras, but also explores the artistic and musical influences that has motivated his long and controversial career.

Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist is an interesting, moving, and personal voyage into the artistic process. For people fascinated by art and artists and who consume Blu-ray bonus material by the hour this documentary currently streaming on Shudder is a can’t miss.

Returning to Bond: Goldeneye

A few years ago I started re-watching, and in some cases watching for the first time, all of the canonical Bond Movies starting with Dr. No. This was done via the Netflix DVD in the mail program which allowed access to the bonus materials on the Blu-rays. When I canceled my DVD in the mail account the Bond re-watch fell by the wayside.

Last night my sweetie-wife, who had participated and enjoyed the series suggested we continue, and we streamed the next one from where we had left off queueing up Goldeneye, the debut of Pierce Brosnan as Bond.

After disappointing box office returns for the two previous films in the franchise which had attempted a grittier and darker tone for the series follow the lighted hearted turned brought by Roger Moore the producers opted to U-turn and bring a level of levity back to the films.

Dealing with a collapsed, corrupt, and capitalistic Russia Goldeneye has Bond chasing down a Soviet-era EMP weapon subverted by Russian and British traitors. The film boasts the usual array of gadgets and gals, plenty of action that is quite over the top, and serious attempts to be relevant with computers in a slightly pre-Internet period. I literally did laugh when the ‘good Bond girl,’ playing the part of someone about to spend serious coin o desktop computers listed the 500-megabyte hard drives and 14400 modems as requirements,

In the film Bond at one point steals a Russian tank and uses it in a chase which reminded me of the deranged man who the same year as this movie’s release stole a tank here in San Diego causing serious damage but luckily, other than himself, no loss of life.

Overall I found Goldeneye a tad too comical, too aware of the camera and still prefer the Current series, with all it faults, to the comedic Bonds.

Thanksgiving 2020

First a Note: Posting has been sporadic this month because this is when the day job starts swinging into high gear as the Annual Open Enrollment Period of Medicare Advantage Plans opens up and that means I get to work overtime. I don’t have to work it, but I do like the extra cash and that means I will often miss regular updates to my blog.

I don’t need to tell you that 2020 has been a trying, taxing, and tumultuous year. No matter who you are or what you do your life has been impacted by this year’s seemingly endless calamities. I have lost a dear friend to the pandemic and another friend has lost his spouse and partner.

And yet setting aside the distinctively American historical roots and traditions I think I can be thankful for a least a few things this year.

I have my health. Neither my sweetie-wife nor I have contracted COVID-19 and we are both still fully employed. This year saw the publication of my debut novel and, despite the pandemic hammering books sales around the globe, my relations with the publisher and editor remain strong. Science has promised a brighter future with multiple effective vaccines seemingly just around the proverbial corner.

Our celebrations will be simply this year. Just my spouse and I maintaining social distancing for ourselves and our community. May your days be brighter and may the coming season bring you a bountiful harvest of things to be thankful for.

Streaming Review: Blood Vessel (2019)

With a cast as inauthentic as the movie’s painted prop gold bars Blood Vessel disappoints.

Hailing from the land down under, Blood Vessel is the story a small group that has survived the sinking of their ship during WWII and find themselves aboard a German warship, whose crew has met mysterious and gruesome deaths. An intriguing premise the film fails almost straight out of the gate. The survivors are a collection of cliched and cardboard caricatures instead of living breathing characters. At no point throughout the films 97-minute runtime does a single character present any sort of inner life, growth, or surprising turn. They are all exactly who they appeared to be when we met them floating in raft in the cold frigid waters of the North Atlantic, presumably in the winter of ’44-’45.

The lack of care or attention to detail in this film might be best typified by the scene where the greedy, brassy, and loud-mouthed character from New York discovers a cache of gold bars presumable looted by the NAZIs from their Romanian allies. Examining the gold, he lifts the bars easily even turning in the light while grasping it with just two fingers.

Had the characters been fleshed out and developed that film’s slow pace and attempts at building tension during the first half of its runtime may have worked. A derelict and deserted ship, particularly an enemy one, would make for a rich and atmospheric setting to explore characters and conflict but if you populate it with tired cliches then the lack of action becomes a drag and not a slow burn.

While watching Blood Vessel it was impossible not to think of similarly themed and flawed films such as 1980’s Death Ship. It isn’t until the third act that the monstrous cause for the carnage that befell the crew is revealed and released forcing the characters into a desperate fight for survival, but by this time it had become impossible to have any emotional stake in their escape or victory and the enjoyment comes from predicting which horror film tropes will rule the script and its ending.

I can’t but also feel that the cinematography also fails the film. While the sequences are well shot and atmospherically lit, there is something in the crispness of the images that works against the story’s period setting.

While some may enjoy the basic monster fight nature of the film, particularly its final act and resolution, I cannot recommend Blood Vessel as a movie worth your time.

Blood Vessel is currently streaming exclusively on Shudder.

Why is Trump’s Support So Damned Stable?

One undeniable fact of the entire Trump administration and his candidacy both in 2016 and 2020 is that his popular support from the voters of the Republican party remained steadfastly high no matter the external factors.

When Trump arrived on the major political landscape via that golden escalator ride down, (in cinema elevators and escalators down are symbols of trips to hell but this was for us and not for him though time will ultimately tell) he leapt to the head of the GOP pack has remained there ever since.

His policy proposals were outlandish and often violated Republican ideology such as promising to raise taxes on the wealthy and promising to give every American access to full, cheap health care. Some took this to be a sign that the GOP base didn’t have the same policy desires as the GOP elite.

Once in office however his administration when it took decisive legislative stands stood firmly for the usual GOP goals including a massive budget busting tax cut for the wealthy, a legislative attempt to repeal the ACA, continuing judicial attempt to repeal the ACA, and massive deregulation. Hardly the package he ran on, but his voters clung tighter to him.

Trump also repeatedly violated GOP trade policy, instigating trade wars that directly and adversely impacted the rural communities that are the core of GOP voter support, but the GOP voters stayed true to the man.

A pandemic swept the nation and as of this writing a quarter of a million American have died of the disease and Trump shows no remorse, no sympathy, and no cares for anything dealing with the outbreak other than his own political fortunes and yet his support from the GOP voters is unwavering.

His corruption and graft are plain. His administration is filled with people charged with serious crimes. He turned a blind eye when an American resident was murdered. Unemployment exploded. But his support is unchanged.

Why?

He has given them judges, but all Republican presidents have given the base the judges that lean towards gun right and restricting abortion and yet their approval rantings rise and fall with the news unlike Trump’s.

The answer may lie in what has remained unchanged in Trump since that escalator ride. It isn’t policy. It isn’t programs or the economy or the health and wealth of the nation.

It is his petty vindictive cruel treatment of those not of his tribe. The mocking, insulting, crude treatment of all those outside of his circle and the circle that his base consider ‘true Americans’ is his only constant. This is what they love. This is the clarion horn that calls them to battle and devote themselves to this corrupt man.

Steady Progress

My newest novel and WIP is coming along nicely. I have made or exceeded my daily writing word count targets every day since I started the project in early October and this week, tomorrow in fact, I will hit the 40% completed mark.

For this project I have kept my daily target a manageable 1000 words. I know that normally that I can actually hit 1500 to 2000 words per day with only a little extra effort, but two factors led me to decide on a smaller goal.

The first was that this is in a genre I have not written before and when venturing into unexplored territory it’s best to go slowly as you learn the terrain.

The second is that this is coinciding with the busy period at my day job. Right now is the open enrollment for Medicare Advantage plans for the whole population and the dramatically increases my work load bringing with it overtime hours. Last week I worked 12 hours above my scheduled shift. Given that this is going to last through the period when I write most of the novel, I thought it best to keep my goals modest.

The importance of a modest is goal is that it can be met while not being so small as to slow the progress. If a goal is too large, then you will miss it too often and that can emotional effects that dampen one’s ability to sit and do the work. Too small and you’re too tempted to stop early and then the lack of progress becomes an emotional impediment.

If I maintain this level of productivity and if the novel lands about where I am expecting in word count, then the first draft should be complete by mid-February.

Review: Mildred Pierce (1945)

The Criterion Channel has a collection of Joan Crawford films and I decided to give Mildred Pierce, adapted from a James M. Cain novel, a spin.

Crawford plays Pierce, a role which won her an Oscar, a middle-class woman who’s forced to survive and flourish after her husband leaves her stranding her with two daughters to raise, one, Veda, with expensive tastes and a growing sense of snobbery. Navigating lecherous men, back-stabbing business deals, heartbreak, and the growing gulf between herself and Veda’s increasing obsession with money and status Mildred also find friendship, loyalty and a strong sense of self as she carves out success founding a small chain of restaurants.

Unlike the novel the film centers around a murder investigation hen Mildred’s second husband is shot dead at his beach house, providing a flashback framing device for the film’s script. This adaptation also eliminated several sub-plots from Cain’s novel due to the restrictive production code enforce on all Hollywood productions at the time.

Crawford delivers a compelling and powerful performance. I was pleasantly surprised to find Eve Arden, whom I had primarily known for her much later career work in the 70s, here as Mildred’s sharp toothed friend. Arden displays a talent for delivering a cutting the remark that would serve her well throughout her career.

Directed by Michal Curtiz the film is competently produced and never lacks for pacing or a strong sense of style despite being hampered with an overly melodramatic scrip and more than a few dry performances in addition to the, even for the period, overly racist caricature of Mildred’s servant girl Lottie, played by Gone with the Wind’s Butterfly McQueen.

While the tacked-on murder plot adds a criminal element Mildred Pierceunlike some of Cain’s other works can only be considered noir adjacent and not noir itself.

HBO has produced a limited series adaptation of the novel which hewed much closer to the original story and not shying away from elements of infidelity and incest.

The Worst is NOT Behind Us

Four years ago, Trump won the presidential election and that decision, not only unregretted by the millions that voted for him but by more who added their support this year, is going to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.

The visceral hate for Trump and his administration is not grounded in a repulsion to his ‘personality’ but to his utter disregard for the office of president, any American who doesn’t fluff his ego, and his rampant, naked corruption but perhaps nothing justifies loathing Trump and his entire blood and political families that his mismanagement of the pandemic.

Under a sane and competent administration this would have been still a terrible year, the disease cares not for your feelings, your economic desires, or your political preferences, it is airborne, it is contagious, and it is lethal. Around the globe cases increasing as winter descends on the northern hemisphere and the best prepared nations are fighting another front but America, divided by a tantrum throwing president and millions who followed to ‘own the libs’ and ‘drink liberal tears’ is plunging over the cliff and into a winter chaos and death.

The recent vaccines news that two different vaccines are showing potentially above 90% efficacy is fantastic but for most Americans those vaccines are months and months away, most likely spring or even summer of 2021 but the virus is here now. The virus is spreading like an uncontrolled wildfire now. The virus is killing more than a thousand every day now. Here are the current cases, hospitalized, and daily deaths.

We are all tired of this. We are all exhausted by the never-ending pandemic but it is on each and every one of us to save lives, to hold on a little bit longer, to restrain our pent up desires for a few months more and save our fellow Americans from lonely, painful, death.

The New Soviet Man

The central and critical element off a democratic system is that the loser of a contest accepts defeat and legitimizes the contest. Without this there is no democracy. The Soviets of the USSR allowed no elections because they were unwilling to accept any result which did not validate their authority. One party rule assures that you never, ever have to concede. Concession is democratic and refusing to concede is anti-democratic.

Trump refuses to concede. The GOP, with few exceptions, is either actively refusing to concede along with him or playing silent and hoping that their cowardice is unnoticed. Trump and the GOP are being anti-democratic.

Let’s be clear. This is not ‘waiting for the process.’ The process as it had been established and conducted for generations has been followed except by Trump and his acolytes. The votes are tabulated, when one candidate has a lead that mathematically can’t be over some by the remains votes the state is called, when enough states are called that the candidate has more than 270 electoral college votes that candidate is then the President-Elect.

In November 2016, to this nation’s horror, that was Trump when he breached the ‘Blue Wall’ and won WI by 22,748 votes, MI by 10,704, and PA by 44,292. Neither his opponent nor the Democratic party refused to concede for weeks, He was the President-Elect.

Biden has rebuilt the ‘Bule Wall’ with his victories in WI by 20,546, MI by 147,393, and PA by 66,334 and with the additional victories in AZ and GA his election is unassailable. No recount, which typically shifts votes by about 500, is going to change this outcome. Joe Biden is the President-Elect. To insist that Biden shouldn’t be referred to as President-Elect is undemocratic, undermine faith in the integrity of the election, and fuels the dangerous conspiracy theory that vast voter fraud is responsible for Trump defeat. With millions of devoted followers, some of whom who have already acted with political violence, remember the mail bombs sent to Democratic politicians, this is not only dangerous to our political institutions but to the citizenry as well.

Each supporter of the conservative movement has a choice, accept the results of a free and fair election by rebuking Trump and his lies or refuse to concede, damage our democracy, and become the New Soviet Man.

November’s Italian Genre: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

Due to me running late and a minor migraine this will have to be quick.

Sunday my sweetie-wife and I watched, via Sd Film Geeks’ monthly festival of Italian Genre Cinema, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage one of the films, along with Blood and Black Lace that established and defined the giallo genre of movies that focused on lurid tales of sex and violence.

The film centers on Sam Dalmas an American author on an extended vacation in Italy. On the eve of his return to America Sam witnesses an attempted murder of a woman in an art gallery. Due to his intervention the woman survives, and Sam becomes part of the police’s hunt for the maniac who has already killed three times. Sam investigates on his own, but with surprising police assistance and acceptance, drawing the killer’s attention and becoming a target himself endangering his own life and that of his live-in girlfriend. Eventually the killer is discovered with the genre appropriate twists and order is restored.

This film was fun to watch. The twists in the plot and the eventual revelations are mor logical than last month The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, though as with all Giallo it is important to approach the film with prodigious suspension of disbelief. Luckily this edition was subtitled and not dubbed, preserving the actors’ portrayals and enhancing the experience/ The cinematography is lush and colorful displaying the tastes that would become the signature of director Dario Argento. As a cherry on top my sweetie-wife also spotted a connection to Star Trek the Original Series. So, if you get a chance to stream this one, do so.

Robert Mitchell Evans

Literary Saboteur