Monday, 28 February 2011
It's Hard to Explain: A Modern Classic: The Wrestler (2009)
It's Hard to Explain: A Modern Classic: The Wrestler (2009): "The Wrestler, directed By Darren Aronofsky still packs a punch several years after it choke-slammed its way into the hearts of critics..."
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Forgotton Films: THX 1138 (1971)
George Lucas’s last directorial feature cost $113,000,000 to make. THX 1138 cost him $1.2 million. Let this be the mind frame you go into THX with; the knowledge that one of America's richest men was once a struggling film-maker, and a vital part of a whirlwind group of directors in the early-seventies determined to prove cinema was an art-form for the masses - and not just a systematic studio-run brand. Released in 1971, THX - a box-office failure – was for many years forgotten and soon over shadowed by his later works – American graffiti and the Star Wars saga. Now forty years old and re-mastered, it is hailed as one of the greatest science-fiction films ever made.
Perhaps the reason that THX 1138 failed so badly in the seventies is because audiences at the time felt that the connection from their world to the world lived in by the characters was too distant. Now, forty years on, THX 1138 has reached a point where it should be fully appreciated. Western Culture has done nothing to stem away from the dystopia it presents to us. In our cities, we are stalked by CCTV, on our TVs and in our newspapers we are thrown advertisements and propaganda, pharmaceutical drugs are now more varied and complex, our population - spiralling out of control; the world which once frustrated George Lucas and inspired him to make this film seems to have developed and expanded into something worse. THX 1138 has had such an impact on me because it seems like the world is growing closer and closer into its numbing, heartless society.
THX’s opening sequence charts the construction of an “officer” – a robot crafted for the sole purpose of upholding the many suppressive and chilling laws and regulations of an underground dystopian society. The gold-faced giants – clearly prototypes for a rather well-known later golden man – are a product of this sinister society which controls them, much like its brain-washed citizens; whose lives are under constant surveillance and control. In this underground city where sexual activity is prohibited, death is an inconvenience and love is non-existent; individual thoughts are numbed and ignored. Human life is controlled through drugs designed to give focus and numb stimulation of the brain. Though the storyline is complex, THX is an absorbing watch which tears popular culture to pieces - everything from religion, to media and the justice system are grated. Its purpose it prove that even in a world where joy is not known and life is not valued, spirit alone can defeat even the most sophisticated form of suppression.
Robert Duvall plays the title character of THX 1138, a brain-washed product of a sedated society. The characters of this world are all bald, dressed in white clothes, manufactured to maintain a world of which they know nothing beyond its rules and regulations. THX 1138’s life - though infinitely more sinister - bears a striking resemblance to the lives of many modern men. His work consumes most of his time and efforts and his home-life with his partner, or in this world his “mate” since she only serves one purpose, is leaving him unhappy and ill. Under the guidance of his mate, “LUH” he begins to abandon the drugs which have made his mind so narrow and numbed. When he does he shows love for his wife, awareness of the sinister society which rules over him and a disregard for its rules. It is not long before the state separates the two (for illegal sexual activity). Thus begins THX’s thrilling and surreal journey into the chilling heart of his own world, where he must overcome conformity, suppression, brain-washing and above all else – his own fear of stepping out of line – in order to free himself.
The big question throughout this film however is: is there such a thing as freedom? For the entirety of the film there is nothing but strikingly-bright white walls, white clothes and the non-stop ramblings of all the characters and extras – giving off a dizzying claustrophobia which leaves the viewer feeling often as boggled and ill as its main character. We question whether there is anything beyond this future world.
Duvall gives a strong performance as the robotic and distressed THX 1138 – the strongest and most prominent in the film. Other characters are thrown into the story but almost immediately withdrawn, the only other regular face being Donald Pleasance’s “SEN”. It is well-known that involving the audience with the characters has always been one of Lucas’s flaws as a film-maker, and in THX all other characters are practically meaningless. This is a film between THX 1138 and the golden-face of authority. Robert Duvall’s pitch-perfect performance has made sure that we sit through the film with no knowledge of THX’s desires, absorbing us into the emotionless mans foray into recklessness.
Having been found guilty of “sedation depletion” – we watch as THX’s fate is decided in a white-walled court. Duvall’s face shows no emotion to the heartless deciders as they contemplate his “immediate destruction” amongst each other. This is one of many glimpses into this world where death is neither dreaded nor feared; but simply an unfortunate inevitability. Our first glimpse of this is in the film’s opening sequence, we watch on a surveillance screen as a blast kills around sixty citizens. THX 1138 shows not even a drop of sadness as the news is announced to him from the unsympathetic voice of the city. They are warned – with no tone of caring – to be safe.
THX 1138 is sentenced to imprisonment in a detention facility, a futuristic jail where the film’s most head-achingly bizarre –and greatest- moments unfold. He is joined in this facility by Donald Pleasance’s strange, delusional SEN and several other unruly clones imprisoned for their attempts to break the system. The characters, with their white clothing, against the endless white that is their jail appear as nought but floating heads and hands, barely distinguishable. The atmosphere is enormously unsettling and after not long in this environment, we feel THX 1138’s pain and boredom as he is forced to listen to the non-stop ramblings of SEN and the other inmates; most of whom once dreamt of escaping their sinister world. We feel the full struggle of THX’s life in this blinding environment, the human being which has been stripped of pleasure and brain-washed to conformity and restriction. This contributes to the energy of the film, we feel THX’s blood boiling and brain working behind his emotionless expressions – and it is not long before he sets off from the other inmates in pursuit of an escape route. THX 1138 and SEN are forced to walk through hours of blinding nothingness, discovering from an early stage that their great escape is flawed by the fact that the detention centre appears to have not exit. With the help of Hologram “SRT” an exit is eventually found, the inmates are reported missing and the chase begins.
The last half hour of THX is the most exciting in the film, but the excitement you feel whilst watching seems to be numbed by the overwhelming feeling that THX may never find a way out of the white walls which contain him; we watch and hope for him – but the hope seems wasted as he is pursued by authorities and stalked by CCTV. He splits from his fellow escapee’s, and gradually the others fall prey to the all-powerful state which rules over them. SEN- whose lack of recklessness shows as he gives up an apparently pointless escape – becomes a victim of the society he helped maintain and gives himself up peacefully, defeated to the officers. THX’s escape continues in a cat-and-mouse sequence which even boasts a car chase. It is a strange sort of suspense we feel as it unfolds, the atmosphere of the film colliding massively with the films action; but it is nonetheless gripping. The film’s final moments won’t fail to disappoint; the character of THX 1138 really coming out of his shell as he delves further and further into the unknown until eventually we end up at the film’s beautiful, should-be-iconic final shot.
The dystopian world of THX 1138 is an imitation of our own; and it’s purpose as a film is to channel a young George Lucas’ frustration and anger at his own times. Worth noting is the film’s slate of religion. In THX 1138’s world they worship “OMM” from unit chapels (futuristic church confessionals). In some early scenes in the film THX 1138 seeks refuge and comfort in one of these, the large staring face of their religion gazing from the booth, resembling a certain religious icon from our own world. In one of the film most excellent moments THX 1138 begs for help from OMM, desperately praying and vomiting in the unit chapel, while the chapel speaks pre-recorded messages of comfort, ignorant of his suffering. We are given snippets of the mechanics of the unit chapel, the wires and chips which THX seeks comfort in - the shots are mesmerising and thought-provoking; when we see the chapel as the machine it is we see the heartlessness of this bleak future in full. The chapel - an empty shell. Their religion – not so much a giver of false hope; just plain false.
THX also derides many other aspects of popular culture such as the descent – in the late 60’s/early 70s – television began into more edgy viewing material. The hologrammed “TV circuits” which THX 1138 watches in his home at the start of the film feature all the human mind needs to remain satisfied - and nothing more. A snippet of propaganda here, a slice of nudity there and to top it all off – some first-class violence (two officers beating a guilty man with their batons endlessly); and he watches these strange and disturbing things bearing the expression any one of us may whilst watching a sitcom. These TV circuits spoon feed THX snippets of enjoyment and pleasure, brain-washing him all the while. It also addressed a growing uneasiness felt at the time with surveillance and the rapidly growing CCTV culture; a theme also addressed in (THX’s executive producer) Francis Ford Coppolla’s excellent “The Conversation.” The people of THX 1138’s environment are stalked relentlessly by surveillance, unable to put a toe out of line. Is modern life much different?
The film also boast some of the best visuals in any film George Lucas has directed, including the more recent flicks filmed entirely on green screen. Lucas has often been criticised – with the star wars especially – for merely placing a camera on a stand and filming what is directly in front of him, but in THX a lot of time and effort seems to have been spent on composing strange and absorbing shots. The camera has been mastered with precision and expertise here, a feature of the film which would have been more than welcome in Lucas’s later works. THX’s greatest strength is in its superb editing, every shot flows fluently into the next, the sounds forever complimenting the actions of the characters and the mood of the film. One scene in particular where THX 1138 is probed and jabbed for a medical examination is borderline cheerful – something this film desperately does not want to be. As afore mentioned however, the greatest weakness in the film is the lack of development in the smaller, promising characters such as THX’s mate LUH who is quickly removed from the film and never seen again. Yes, in this film we need no one but the title character and his pursuers to keep us company on his journey, but something about the abandonment of the rest of the cast feels like a waste.
I would not recommend THX 1138 for those of you (cough - idiots - cough) who are not fans of the Star Wars saga; nor would I recommend it to a great lover of the Star Wars saga. It is, like all the greatest Sci-fi’s an acquired taste – 2001, Blade Runner and more recently Moon, to name a few. It is only eighty-five minutes long but it drags along with it a lot of weight and requires a lot of thinking; thus making it seem much longer. It was at the time, and still is to this date, more surrealist art than film. Comparing this film to such Sci-fi’s as Avatar would be like comparing a Salvador Dali painting to a Monet in my opinion. Yes, Monet could paint beautiful, colourful paintings; but did he make me question the bridges he painted? It takes a lot of inspiration from classics such as Metropolis and fifties science fiction films like The Day the Earth Stood Still and channels them into a haunting and sinister society; the likes of which you will never have seen in any film before and never will again.
Perhaps the reason that THX 1138 failed so badly in the seventies is because audiences at the time felt that the connection from their world to the world lived in by the characters was too distant. Now, forty years on, THX 1138 has reached a point where it should be fully appreciated. Western Culture has done nothing to stem away from the dystopia it presents to us. In our cities, we are stalked by CCTV, on our TVs and in our newspapers we are thrown advertisements and propaganda, pharmaceutical drugs are now more varied and complex, our population - spiralling out of control; the world which once frustrated George Lucas and inspired him to make this film seems to have developed and expanded into something worse. THX 1138 has had such an impact on me because it seems like the world is growing closer and closer into its numbing, heartless society.A Modern Classic: The Wrestler (2009)
The Wrestler, directed By Darren Aronofsky still packs a punch several years after it choke-slammed its way into the hearts of critics and audiences alike. From the opening shot or Rourke, blonde locks shrouding his weary, orange face; coughing into his muscular hands while sat in the corner of a room backstage from a wrestling event, the mood is set. This is no sports movie. It’s no action film and it’s certainly not WWE. We realise from the offset that his is the tale of a broken man’s struggle with his existence.
For most of the film the camera stalks Rourke like the world’s most annoying paparazzi, forever pursuing him, unwelcome in Randy “The Ram” Razinski’s world. We watch, sympathetic as the ageing wrestler struggles through his tough life both in and out of the wrestling ring . It follows a basic plotline, a respected former champion wrestler avoiding retirement, is offered the opportunity to re-create his most famed fight, with “Ayatullah.” We follow The Ram first to his trailer park home, where the park manager has changed the locks on his doors due to his non-payment; we find the title character to be remarkably unaggressive as he bangs on the door of the manager’s office, and when his voice breaks as he calls to the man behind the door, we get our first glimpse of the Ram’s insecurity and fragility. He bunks up in his van and it is here that we see his face clearly for the first time as it pokes out of the darkness. Here, we notice, is a man who doesn’t need your sympathy. As the film unfolds, further sub plots emerge and develop. There’s first of all The Ram’s strange relationship with struggling stripper and single mother, Cassidy (or Pam) – played beautifully by Marisa Tomeii, which then prompts the terrible relationship between Randy and his neglected twenty-something daughter, Stephanie (Evan Rachel-Wood). On top of this we are gifted some excellent scenes from Randy’s job at the local store, where some of the film’s best scenes take place. Within the walls of the store we see a human being struggling to find pride – and in his case respect - in the face of the power-based environment of the supermarket, where pressure is placed from boss to boss, and worker to worker.
The point of the wrestler, I believe is exposure. The film exposes us to the strange world of wrestling. In one scene we first see the end result of a hardcore wrestling match between The Ram and another, it ends with the title character winning, bloodied as his opponent, surrounded in the ring by all manner of harmful objects, from stable guns to blunt objects wrapped in barbwire. As The Ram is treated to the injuries he has sustained we then see how the match unfolded, revealing how each injury became so. This is the film exposing us to the strange, physical world of the wrestler; where a mixture of acting, stunts and pure spontaneity (watch as the opponent staples a dollar bill to his own forehead in a moment of mad brilliance) dominates the ring and encapsulates the lively, blood-thirsty audience. Of course, not only does the film expose us to the world of wrestling, it exposes us to its characters and to the lives they struggle to maintain in the bleak New Jersey
film’s most memorable line from Randy “I’m just a broken up piece of meat” brings forth a connection from the character to the film’s audience; we almost feel as though the character is not saying this to his daughter, but that Rourke is confessing it to the world. We feel the weight that Rourke carries around with himself, not just the muscle, but the pain of his existence and the struggle of his everyday life; not made any easier by the heart attack which Randy suffers early on in the film, threatening to sabotage his wrestling career. It is a struggle not just for Rourke as he shuffles along the streets but for the audience too as the ram’s once glorious life is exposed in all it’s sad irony. We struggle with The Wrestler, his weight is our weight and we connect with him because of this.
The character of Randy further reveals his world to us, the time, money and effort he puts in to maintaining his appearance shows him to be a gentle soul. Not neurotic or self-conscious but simply a product of the eighties, the era of wrestling which belonged to him, and he is determined to cling on to that image. We seem him alone in the gym, arriving for an appointment at a spray tan salon and sitting at his hairdresser’s, looking remarkably feminine as he asks his roots to be bleached. All of this adds up to the new portrayal we viewers get of the wrestling world.
Marisa Tomeii’s Pam brings great depth to the story, and the relationship between her and Randy is one which is both painful to watch and mysterious. The two characters share a strange connection which is constantly being damaged by Pam and her inability to balance the woman she is at home with her son and the woman who strips for the more and more uninterested men who haunt the club. Tomeii portrays the struggle of her character perfectly, her flickers of kindness and concern for Randy which slip through her tough-girl-stripper persona. The two of them on screen together coincide perfectly, a couple whose lives mirror each other and who belong together, yet they hold back like tough people do, waiting for the bolder person to make the first move. When Randy eventually does lean in for a kiss, which she accepts, Pam backs out, she does not date customers is her excuse; but really she does not know if she wants a man in her life, does not want to be hurt. The two character’s lives mirror, they both feel sympathetic towards the other but not to themselves. He, a has-been wrestler reduced to poverty; and she, a poor former party-girl, mother and ageing woman in a young girl’s business. You see the sympathy which they share for each other in a scene where they sit by the bar and discuss the eighties, their era; and the nineties, their downfall. Their relationship is unbalanced, broken by the sins of their past and their insecurities, it makes for great watching, you will cringe as the old man moshes by the bar to a Guns’n’Roses song playing on the jukebox, their awkward connection strengthens in this scene, yet they remain distant.
It is the character of Pam who brings forth the existence of randy’s only child, and straight away we can see the indifference which Randy has shown towards her. As Pam quizzes him about his daughter’s interests, music, fashion and so on, randy shrugs and grunts, clueless. “Everybody needs a father” says Pam. Did he? Did she? Was it this that made them such tough characters? The only photograph Randy seems to possess of his daughter has scribbles on the back of all the phone numbers she has had, scored out and replaced. His daughter is revealed to be a very aggressive character, with moments of strained sympathy for her father. She has no problem in expresses to her father exactly how she feels about the way he has treated her; she feels enraged by his lack of concern for her over the years and the neglect, any moment you believe she may just randomly burst with rage. Randy takes all her abuse on the chin, he bears the guilt of her temper; it was after all his fault that she grew up so bitter. On their second outing together, there is a beautiful but brief connection between the father and the daughter; Randy takes her out to the seaside like he used to when she was a child and to the boardwalk where they had their happiest memories of each other. The boardwalk casino and amusements have long shut down, now they are abandoned and wasting away, much like Randy himself. The building’s deteriorating structure and instability represents the lead character himself. Its heyday too was the nineteen eighties, people once loved and cherished the building, now it is an empty shell on the lonely Jersey shore, seagulls and graffiti inhabit it now. It is within the empty ballroom of this building that the two share their most intimate moment as Randy, the rough-tough-muscle-bound wrestler offers his daughter to dance with him, and gracefully they waltz, the camera perfectly capturing their every step and for the few minutes they dance the building may as well be filled with people, all in dresses and suits, sipping champagne under chandeliers along to the whining of a violin. Their strengthening relationship is quickly ruined by Randy when he fails to arrive for their arranged dinner one evening. He goes to her home to confront her and apologise. It is hopeless. Stephanie throws all manner of objects at him, and to a man used to being busted open by chairs, sticks and razors; they seem to hurt him an awful lot.
The most exiting scenes in the film take place outside of the wrestling ring and instead within the store in-which Randy works part time. Having confirmed his retirement from the sport at the nearest payphone, Randy is a beaten man as he dons an apron and hairnet to begin his first shift on the store’s deli. The camera follows him from the sad moment as he puts on his work gear and walks through the staff quarters of the store just as it did as he emerged from the locker room and slapped the hands of his fans as he entered the ring earlier in the film. As his walk progresses, we hear a crowd chanting his name, perhaps a flashback from the eighties, they cheer and scream for their hero; but he is defeated. No longer a champ, he rinses his hands in the sink in preparation of the working day ahead. At first Randy attempts to find joy and rhythm in his work at the meat counter, he puts up with the jackass of a boss who is forever bullying him and he jokes with the customers of the shop. As the film goes on and his relationships with Pam and Stephanie deteriorate, so does his patience. In the film’s most shocking and rousing scene, we feel the characters patience truly being tested by an elderly woman, fussing over the amount of potato salad he has given her. Randy seems to have hit an all time low by this point in the film, we see a man struggling to survive in a world without the joy of his true love, his sport. In this scene, through the beaten and deteriorating man we see the reckless animal he was in his heyday begging to burst out of his embarrassing work uniform. Eventually it does, when an old wrestling fan finally recognises him Randy becomes so frustrated he “rams” one of his fingers into the slicer; blood squirts across the counter and the customers gasp in shock. Randy relishes the pain, it makes him angry and strong like it did in the ring; and he lashes out at the cruel world as he storms up an aisle, throwing his work clothes away and punching stock, cereal boxes, and the like. Driven by adrenaline and rage, he returns to the same payphone from which his retirement had been announced and tells the person on the other end, “I just want to get back in the ring and fucking fight.”
Randy throws caution to the wind for the films climactic final scenes. Having failed at human relationships, randy realises the only really powerful and meaningful relationship in his life was the one he had with the ring and the fans who loved him. In his frenzy, Randy sucks the viewer into his life - where we have been unwelcome from the start. Now we are paying for our insight into his harsh life, and like one of his opponents in the ring, he takes us across New Jersey
While Randy prepares for his big fight, the film returns to the story of Pam, who also is having a bad day at work. Realisation of the hopelessness of her career begins to dawn on her as she strips on the main stage. She looks around at the few men who stalk the dark strip club, uninterested and numb to the effort and struggle of her life – she too throws caution to the wind, storming backstage for her clothes and leaving the club in hurry; perhaps for good, we never find out. She seeks out randy, attempting to present her feelings towards him gradually, but he is indifferent to her, his only concern is for his fight, and what a fight it turns out to be. Backstage, Pam warns him not to go through it. He is faced with a dilemma. Fight and risk his health; or stay backstage with her and be with the woman he loves. Going on instinct, he chooses to fight; deciding perhaps that he never was any good at being close to people. Randy gives a heartfelt speech to the fans in the large crowd, they cheer as he disses the outside world and the wounds it has left him with; telling them that he belongs in the ring, with the love of these people in the crowd. He declares he has only ever been hurt outside of the ring. Everything about his speech tells us that he may never fight again, the fight feels like a grand finale; a swansong. Half way into the fight, he collapses, clutching his heart; the scar from the bypass which saved his life now his Achilles heel in the ring. His opponent “Ayatullah” – booed by the crowd – helps randy to pull off a great show despite his weakening health. By this point in the film, we are well and truly submerged into Randy’s world, we are in the ring with him struggling to pull him to his feet. Randy now exposed in his old age fully both to the viewer and to the wrestling audience which cheers him on, struggles, and we with him, to the top of the corner post. The crowd and the viewer are united in the frenzy of the moment, we feel the effort of his climb and the pain of his dying heart as he prepares himself for what is possibly his final leap; and the last we shall ever see of this fantastic unique character, the likes of which cinema may never see again.
Aronofsky’s loose and rugged approach to the film is part of it’s momentous impact. It is filmed subtly, but the subtlety is beautiful and fitting to the bleak city of Elizabeth New Jersey
Over the years Darren Aronofsky has made some excellent films but with the Wrestler he really found his footing as a film maker. Like Coppolla before him, his greatest strength is in the direction he gives his actors; he understands that the film is theirs to make or break. Without him, perhaps the weight that Rourke seems to lug about the streets would not have been there, perhaps if a weaker actress were cast as Stephanie or Pam then the film would lose all its depth. The wrestler’s other great strength is that –like it’s characters, it’s setting, it’s script - it is rough-around-the-edges, the camera when it should be still upon a tripod is shaky, constantly moving; or fluently bobbing along behind its characters. There may be influences in the style it is filmed from the likes of Scorsese and Tarantino; but the realism and command which Aronofsky has poured into this film makes it unique. He has taken many aspects of what made the Wrestler work so well and used them for his latest feature, Black Swan. Again here is a film in which Aronofsky has cast his leading actor through a challenging physical and mental transformation in order to absorb the audience into a tough and competitive world of which we know little. Though Black Swan is more unsettling than The Wrestler, it shares the same blood as it, the camera stalks Natalie Portman through her most awkward and emotional moments, again as a viewer we feel unwelcome in her world, but drawn in by her beautiful performance. He uses the same mediums as he has used in the wrestler previously, and brought them into a darker and less-known world. Thus Aronofsky has built on a medium which is unique to him, taken the principles which made the Wrestler so fantastic and used them to create a similar, but still new, and current environment. Black Swan proved to be just as heart-wrenching and crowd-pleasing as The Wrestler had been several years before, and I, like so many others around the world am excited that there are – amongst the superhero-ed blur of our summers - film makers across the world as edgy and determined as Aronofsky to be original; to make an impact on our society and our history through the medium of film. That being said, as Aronofsky’s next film is to be “The Wolverine” – I may have to eat those last words some day.
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