Month: February 2022

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope 9/10

Nick SheedyLeave a comment

PG, 121m, 1977

Starring: Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Peter Mayhew), David Prowse (Darth Vader) and James Earl Jones (Darth Vader Voice). Directed by George Lucas. Produced by Gary Kurtz. Screenplay by George Lucas. Music by John Williams.

            When I sat down to write this review, I knew it was going to be difficult. A New Hope was released in 1977, and its been analyzed and reviewed by so many people, that writing a new review for the film seems almost superfluous. This raises the question of what could I possibly have to add or contribute to the conversation? The second problem I had with reviewing this film, is my absolute love for the original Star Wars trilogy. How could I be subjective to a film that I adored gowing up? As a kid I read numerous Star Wars books that are now part of the legends cannon, and my friends and I used to reenact our favorite moments from the films on the playground (how we kept from actually hurting each other, I’ll never know). As I sat down to review this film, I found I noticed little things in the film that both added and took away from my enjoyment of the film.

            The film opens with an epic opening scroll, set to an epic operatic theme that provides the expository backdrop needed to understand what’s going on onscreen. After years of civil war, the Rebel Alliance s successfully stolen the plans for the Empire’s ultimate battle station, the dreaded Death Star, which can destroy entire planets. The film truly starts with an Imperial Star Destroyer capturing the ship that houses Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and the Death Star plans. Also on the ship are the droids C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker). While hiding from the Imperial forces, R2-D2 is given the Death Star plans from Princess Leia and is instructed to give the plans to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Escaping on an escape pod, the two droids land on the desert planet of Tatooine, where they eventually meet Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). The three soon come into contact with an elderly man who goes by the name of Ben Kenobi (Alec Guinness). After hearing of the droids’ secret mission, Ben reveals himself to be the very Obi-Wan Kenobi that the droids had been searching for. Obi-Wan then reveals to Luke that he and Luke’s father and once been Jedi Knights, who used to serve as the guardians of the Grand Republic before the Empire came into power. The message inside Artoo is revealed to be a message of Leia begging Obi-Wan to join her father on the planet of Alderaan and assist the Rebellion in their fight against the Empire. Initially Luke was reluctant to go with Ob-Wan to Alderaan since he had an uncle and aunt who needed his help on their farm. However, upon returning home, Luke discovers the charred remains of his aunt and uncle, who were killed by a squad of Imperial stormtroopers. Luke, Obi-Wan, and the droids quickly find a ship captain named Han Solo (Harrison Ford), who along with his first mate Chewbacca agrees to take the group to Alderaan, aboard the Millennium Falcon. Meanwhile, Princess Leia has been captured and is brought to Darth Vader for questioning. Annoyed at her lack of corporation, Vader sends Leia away to be taken to the Death Star. Where she is forced to witness the destruction of her home planet of Alderaan. Now our heroes aboard the Millennium Falcon must rescue Princess Leia and help take the Death Star’s secret plans to the hidden Rebel base.

            I think part of the reason the characters of Star Wars have become as enduring as they have is due to how familiar, and yet how unique these characters are. George Lucas drew heavily from the space serials and swashbucklers of his youth, as well as other archetypical characters found in classic literature and myth. Luke is the wide-eyed dreamer, who serves as the blank slate that the audience can live vicariously through and learn more about the universe that the characters inhabit. Mark Hamill encapsulates this role perfectly, his wholesome easy-going nature spills wonderfully into the character of Luke, which helps the audience identify and empathize with him throughout the film. Han Solo is the suave mercenary archetype, but whose heart is in the right place. Harrison Ford embodied this role perfectly, of the three youthful characters Harrison was the oldest as well as the only one to star in more than one feature before the release of this film. Leia Organa is a strong female character that adds a much-needed feminine touch, but who could also hold her own in a fight. Carrie Fisher does an excellent job portraying a character who is wise beyond her years and who can hold her own in a fight. My only real complaint against Leia in A New Hope isn’t because of the actress. In the film, her home planet of Alderaan is destroyed, and with the planet’s destruction, her entire family is wiped out as well. I have a feeling that Carrie Fisher wanted to emote more but was told to hold back. There was a deleted line following the destruction of Alderaan that I feel would have benefited the film. The line uttered by Leia in which she says, “And you call yourselves human”. This is an excellent retort and through Carrie Fisher’s brilliant vocal experience, the audience got a sense of just how devastated Leia truly was following the destruction of her home planet. C-3PO and R2-D2 serve as the comedic relief, who were heavily influenced by the two peasants in Akira Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress. Obi-was Kenobi serves as the older mentor archetype that is meant to introduce the naïve, wide-eyed youth to the wider world. Of the four main human protagonists, Alec Guinness was the most experienced actor with film credits from such classic films as Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge Over the River Kwai, and Doctor Zhivago. This experience translates masterfully to the screen as Alec Guinness projects a sense of grace and wisdom that stems from a lifetime of study and dedication. Released in an age of cinema where antiheroes and grey-coded protagonists ruled the screen, it’s interesting to see a return to the traditional black-and-white villain with the acolytes and leaders of the Empire. Tarkin and Darth Vader are throwbacks to the traditional villain roles that were popular during the 1940s and 50s, with their design and personalities taking influence from both real life and fictional Nazis. David Prowse provided the physical acting for Darth Vader and James Earl Jones provided Vader’s voice. Had either actor been the sole performer for the character, I feel that Vader wouldn’t be as intimidating as he is in the film. Davis Prowse does an excellent job portraying a character that towers over everybody, and who demands respect when he walks into a room. However, Prowse’s voice doesn’t quite have that threatening tone that James Earl Jones’ voice does. Contrarily James Earl Jones has a deep commanding voice that can send shivers down one’s spine, but I do not think that James Earl Jones possessed the commanding prowess that would have been needed to fulfill the ole of Darth Vader.

            One of the most enduring themes I found in this movie is humanity vs. the machine. Now this can be taken in two ways. The first is the most obvious, a group of humans go and try and destroy a mechanized death machine, that can snuff out all life on a planet. True, the Rebels use technology as well, but the Rebels’ technology looks less uniformal. The interior of the Death Star looks absolutely spotless as if hundreds of people or droids constantly clean the interior of the giant space station. This creates an environment that feels sanitized, uniformal, and practically devoid of individuality. The Rebels, on the other hand, have technology that looks dingier and more used. The Millennium Falcon feels like a ship that has been lived in and has seen action. There are scuffs and marks on the ship, the inside is dirty and there is stuff scattered all over the ship. I find that adding touches like this adds a sense of realism and personality to any kind of vehicle. This is in stark contrast to the Imperial forces whose ships look spotless and uniformal. The droids of the Imperials also lack any real sense of personality or individuality. In contrast C3PO and R2-D2 have distinct looks and personalities and are valued members of the Rebel forces. The second is the idea of free beings who stand together to fight the mechanized forces of fascism. George Lucas was very clever in the design of the empire. He took elements from real life, but not so much that it becomes too real. The forces of the empire and clad in black and white, and in later films a dash of red would be added. This color scheme along with the costume design of the imperial officers creates an allusion to Nazi Germany, which was very initial. George Lucas told the production designing team, led by John Molo, that he wanted the costumes of the imperials to be modeled off the uniforms of the Nazis, and the rebels’ costume design was modeled off the uniforms of Allied soldiers.

            The battles in this movie are some of the best fights in cinema history. When I say battles in a Star Wars film, most people assume that I’m referring to a battle involving a lightsaber. In this particular instance, I am not. There is one lightsaber battle in this film and it’s between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader. Audiences in 1977 had no idea of the significance and weight this fight should have had. Obi-Wan trained Vader, we are told this specifically by Obi-Wan near the beginning of the film, and yet I didn’t feel that the fight had any real weight or substance to it. All the fight really looks like two tired old guys gently taping their lightsabers together. Which I get considering the limitations of the time, but I still feel it feels rather lackluster given the context. When I said this film had some amazing fight sequences, I was referring to the space battles. George Lucas got the inspiration for filming the space battles from viewing old WW2 aerial dogfights. By combining footage of the actors swiveling around in their battle stations, with images of a model ship zooming around on a wire, combined with John William’s excellent score, George Lucas was able to create intense and memorable scenes that helped revolutionize the way we see movies.

            In 1997, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the release of A New Hope, George Lucas oversaw the re-release of the original Star Wars trilogy. This re-release included alternating several parts of the movie. While these changes have no serious impact on the plot, in some cases scenes are drastically changed from their original version. Some changes were good, I liked the addition of fire rings to the explosion effects. I find that it gives the impact of the scene more weight to see an additional shock wave precede the explosion. I also liked the addition of a formally deleted scene, in which Luke is reunited with his childhood friend Biggs Darklighter. I felt that the added scene strengthens the relationship between the two characters, as the two are childhood friends and neither are sure they’re going to make it back alive. So, it makes sense that there would be a scene featuring the two young men embracing one another and viewing the impending attack with a sense of naive optimism. I also liked the addition of a 180° turn of CGI X-Wing Fighters flying from Yavin 4 to the Death Star.  This added scene increases the suspense because it shows that the Death Star is already about to be in firing range, and how imperative it is for the Rebel pilots to succeed in their mission. Unfortunately, I have more gripes with the Special Edition changes than I do praises. I felt the addition of CGI creatures, droids, and ships in the Mos Eisley scene was a massive distraction. I get wanting to make your world feel lived in and feature many different creatures, droids, and ships to make it look more diverse and unique, but when your additions make it harder for the audience to see the characters we’re supposed to care about, it’s time to cut down on your vast crowd shots. I was also not a fan of having a CGI Jabba in this film. The scene involving Jabba just reiterates everything that we found out in the scenes featuring Greedo. The scene also takes away from the impact of the introduction of the Millennium Falcon, as the scene with Jabba technically serves as the introduction of the Millennium Falcon to the audience. This premature introduction of the Millennium Falcon takes away from the awe factor when Luke, Obi-wan, and the droids are introduced to the Millennium Falcon. I also found it needlessly silly to have Boba Fett in the Jabba scene stop and look at the camera, as if to say “Hey! I’m Boba Fett, isn’t this pointless cameo cool?”. And finally, the scene that was altered that has divided Star Wars fans for years, the Han/Greedo scene. In the scene, Greedo has a blaster pointed at Han and is spouting out exposition as to why Han needs money. In the original version, Han shot Greedo with a blaster that was hidden under the table. In the Special Edition versions, Greedo shoots first but somehow misses from point-blank range. Some people don’t like the idea of Han shooting Greedo first, without Greedo getting off a shot first because it makes Han look like a merciless killer. Han shooting first doesn’t bother me because Han’s character is modeled off of the classic rogue archetype, o it falls in line with his character. Han shooting first also doesn’t bother me because Greedo has a gun on him at point-blank range and the chances of Greedo missing are very low, so I don’t find it callous or out of character for Han to shoot someone who is threatening him, and who has a gun on him. Something else that bothers me about Greedo getting a shot out, involves my point earlier about Greedo having a blaster pointed at Han at point-blank range. They try to remedy this by having Han dodge a bit, but the edit looks so bad and it’s blatantly obvious that it was added in post-production.

            Star Wars: A New Hope is a marvel of a film. Put simply, this film should have been a hockey, cheesy, camp fest at best. Practically everything was going wrong on the set, the film was facing budgetary issues due to the belief that science fiction movies weren’t considered financially viable, and the special effects needed for the film had to be invented as the film went along. But somehow, George Lucas was able to beat the odds and create an updated space adventure, rooted in classical myth and legends.

Cannibal Holocaust 5/10

Nick SheedyLeave a comment

R, 98m, 1980

Starring: Robert Kerman (Harold Monroe), Gabriel Yorke (Alan Yates), Luca Giorgio Barbareschi (Mark Tomaso), Francesca Ciardi (Faye Daniels) and Perry Pirkanen (Jack Anders). Directed by Ruggero Deodato. Produced by Franco Di Nunzio and Franco Palaggi. Screenplay by Gianfranco Clerici. Music by Riz Ortolani.

            Often penned as “the most disturbing film ever made”, Cannibal Holocaust is a film marred with controversy. Upon the release of this film the director Ruggero Deodato, was arrested and charged with obscenity. The French magazine Photo suggested that certain deaths depicted in the film were real, which would have made Cannibal Holocaust a snuff film. Upon the publication of the Photo article, the charges against Deodato were amended to include murder. This is partially because the actors and actresses had to sign contracts with the production which ensured that they would not appear in any type of media, motion pictures, or commercials for one year following the film’s release. This was done to promote the idea that Cannibal Holocaust was truly the recovered footage of missing documentarians. To prove his innocence, Deodato arranged for the four main actors to make an appearance on an Italian television interview, to prove that they were still alive. The film would become infamous again during the “video nasties” scare. The video nasties were a list of films that the British National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association considered to be absolutely apprehensible. Other titles on this list included Faces of Death, SS Experiment Camp, Night of the Bloody Ape, and the Last House on the Left. The video nasties caused such a stir in Britain during the 1980s and 90s, video stores that carried these titles could face fines or even jail time if convicted for the sale of what was considered obscene and immoral material. Cannibal Holocaust is one of the most widely brought up films when talking about video nasties, but I’m not entirely sure that this film deserves the tremendous backlash and contrives that it stirred up.

            The film centers around the mysterious disappearance of a group of documentary filmmakers led by Alan Yates (Gabriel Yorke), who has gone missing after journeying to the Amazon rainforest to film a documentary on the indigenous cannibal tribes. Harold Monroe (Robert Kerman), an anthropologist teaching at NYU, leads a rescue mission to find the missing filmmakers. Arriving in the Amazon rainforest, Monroe and his team are greeted with hostility from the native tribe. They learn that the natives’ hostility stems from the ill-treatment they received at the hands of the missing filmmakers. After befriending members of the Ya̧nomamö, Monroe and his team are led to the skeletal remains of the filmmakers, along with their filmmaking equipment. Back at NYU, Monroe is pressured by the executives of the Pan American Broadcasting System to broadcast the footage from the recovered film. Monroe insists that he views the footage before he agrees to help broadcast anything. One of the executives shows Monroe Yates’ previous documentary, The Last Road to Hell. Monroe learns from the executive that Yates had purposely staged some of the documentary’s more dramatic moments. Monroe then sits to review the filmmakers’ final footage. What he discovers is the vile truth, as to what happened to the filmmakers and their misdeeds in the final days leading to their deaths. Monroe is then forced to make a decision as to whether or not he should allow the footage to be broadcast to the general public.

Cannibal Holocaust is presented partially in the found footage style of cinema, which would later be popularized by films such as The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, and Paranormal Activity. While many have criticized this technique as gimmicky or jarring, I actually feel that this film benefits from utilizing this technique of cinematography. The found footage element comes into play during the presentation of the dead filmmakers’ final footage. I find that the found footage elements adds a sense of realism to the film, that I feel the film would have been felt a bit lost had the cinematography been the same throughout the film. Some may find this style of filmmaking jarring, but I personally would have found it far more jarring had the film been consistently in one format, even though the audience is being shown footage used from a different camera.

            Despite being penned as “the most controversial film ever made”, Cannibal Holocaust actually has something important to say. Censorship is still a hot-button issue throughout the world, just as it was when this film was originally made. When director Ruggero Deodato set out to make this film, he had no intention of creating a mainstream film that would be adored by the public. He wanted to create something that started a discussion about censorship and posed the question; when is something so vile and shocking, that it can’t be shown on television? Given my background in history, I get both sides of the argument. Some content that is super vile and disgusting needs to be shown and understood by the general public, and some things should not be aired at all, because it could inspire future copy-cats to try and recreate the original controversial act and one-up it. The crew of filmmakers who set out to film a documentary on cannibal tribes living in the Amazon rainforest did some truly horrendous things. An example would be the documentary crew herded some of the local village natives into a hut, barring any exits, and setting the hut ablaze. The reason they committed this atrocity was to make their documentary more interesting and to stage a massacre. While watching the filmmakers commit this heinous act, one can’t help but be reminded of the way the Nazis would treat the inmates of concentration camps during the Holocaust. The revelation of these crimes, and the gruesome way the documentary filmmakers die, cause Monroe to have second thoughts about releasing the footage to the public. Before witnessing what was actually on the tapes, the narrative was about finding these documentary filmmakers who went missing while filming in the Amazon rainforest. After viewing the filmmakers’ footage, Monroe is horrified at what he sees, and he seizes to view the filmmakers as innocent victims, but as possible makers of their own design. I can see some people entirely missing the point of this film and saying something to the effect of “This film is so unnecessarily violent, that it’s just violence for the sake of violence.”. Director Ruggero Deodato got the idea for Cannibal Holocaust while watching the news with his young son. The news was airing some graphic war images, which prompted Deodato’s son to express discomfort at seeing the violence. Deodato thought that the media focused on portraying violence with little regard for journalistic integrity and believed that journalists staged certain news angles to obtain more sensational footage. Cannibal Holocaust is not a film that should be shown on television, nor should it be shown to children, but I do feel that this film needs to exist for people to watch. The MPAA exists for a reason, and that reason is to warn viewers that a film may have content that is unsuitable for children or sensitive viewers.

            Solely based on the title of the film, most people know that this film is going to feature some graphic imagery. Cannibal Holocaust certainly earns its graphic title by featuring some of the most creatively gruesome deaths in cinema history. In one scene, a native woman is found by the documentary crew, nude and impaled on a pole. In a lesser film, the filmmakers would have used a plastic doll of some kind and called it good. Cannibal Holocaust actually had a live woman perform this stunt. They managed this by having her sit in a small seat that is hidden behind her bloodied body and having the actress stick her head into the air with a pole in her mouth. This is a very convincing scene and it still holds up over forty years later. However, I will say that the violence in this film is not meant to exist merely for the sake of violence. The violence in this film has a clear and present message. I feel that the groups who campaigned against this film like the British National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association, which was led by Mary Whitehouse, completely missed the point of the film. They just knew of the violence of the film and some people, like Whitehouse herself, admitted to never even seeing the film. I find this simply appalling as Whitehouse probably would have agreed with the central message of the film, which has to deal with what should and should not be put on television.

            One of the major gripes I have with this film is the all-around bland acting from the cast. This is due in part to the casting of mostly nonprofessional actors. Most of the stars of the film had little to no acting experience, making Cannibal Holocaust their film debut. The only “experienced” actor onset was Robert Kerman as Professor Harold Monroe, and most of his previous acting experiences were in pornographic films such as Debbie Does Dallas. His acting in this movie is par for the course of a pornographic actor but fails to live up to the standards of a serious feature film. The four filmmakers were mostly inexperienced college students, with only Luca Barbareschi having any acting credits to their name. I can be a bit more forgiving of the four dead filmmakers’ performances as they’re supposed to be more natural and somewhat silly, with all of the actors mugging for the camera at times.

            I talked at length about the violence of the film and the resulting outcry it caused. Fake violence doesn’t really bother me on film, real violence and death are a completely different matter. Several animals were purposely killed during filming to heighten the film’s sense of violence. This includes a turtle being beheaded and partially torn apart, as well as the onscreen deaths of a pig, squirrel monkey, and a coati. The actors of the film objected numerous times to the actual killing of animals, but director Ruggero Deodato persisted, resulting in several of the actors referring to Deodato as a sadist and remorseless. While I did find some poignancy in the fake violence, I saw no reason for the actual pointless killing of the animals. It would have been one thing had the animals died quickly and humanly. But many of the animals who died onscreen did so screaming in agony. I grew up on a farm and in a rural area, so I have a bit of a higher tolerance for animals dying than the average person, but I can not abide by the pointless and cruel deaths of animals. To put it bluntly, some of the animal deaths were harder to sit through than parts of the documentary Dominion, which showcases some of the abhorrent conditions of some of the slaughterhouses in Australia.

            While I understand the mindset of labeling this film as “the most disturbing film of all time”, I really can’t agree with that statement. Cannibal Holocaust at least has a proper plot and has a reason for all of the violence that occurs throughout the film. Cannibal Holocaust is not what I refer to as a “pizza cutter movie” A pizza cutter movie is a film that is all edge and no point. A pizza cutter movie tries to be edgy by showing scenes of intensive graphic nature, realistic and brutal acts of sexual assault, and other abhorrently gruesome acts of debauchery. Films like Shōjo Tsubaki, A Serbian Film, August Underground, and Snuff R73 are far more unapologetically graphic in their depictions of violence and debauchery and would fall under the banner of pizza cutter films. That being said, I would offer anybody interested in this film a few words of caution as this film depicts some very heavy subject matter and several animals were actually maliciously and senselessly killed onscreen.