Class of '82

1982 was a vintage year for films, these are a few of my favourites;

Tron – Stephen Lisberger
All Pixar slapstick humour comes from here.
That’s quite a statement but it’s clearly evident from a particular sequence about half way through Tron in which Jeff Bridge is trying to fly the broken down space invader thing. He is accompanied by a ‘byte’, a floating spark/ball thing that can only say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Jeff comically flies the ship through the Tron landscape crashing into things, having a funny back and forth with his little sidekick, until he ultimately breaks his ship into pieces. It’s a well timed comedy sequence with the perfect rhythm that seems to be facilitated by the medium of 3D animation. Timing, like scaling, is easier in 3D than 2D. The speed at which something is animated can be timed perfectly in 3D animation; physical comedy can be easily animated to the millisecond before the final rendering of the image is created. A gag can be viewed from multiple angles and the funniest one chosen whereas traditional 2D animation relies on the director making the right choice to begin with. Looking forward to the sequel.

The Dark Crystal – Jim Henson and Frank Oz
The Dark Crystal is an amazing achievement. I’m tempted to say it’s on the same level as Peter Jackson’s Lord of The Rings trilogy and Avatar as far as the creation of a wholly realised ‘other world’ goes. Of course the most impressive thing is that it was made in the pre-digital age that I’m always harping on about; the cast is made up entirely of puppets, who occupy a detailed and ‘believable’ planet that was painstakingly created. I’m sure there were budgetary restrictions but it’s hard to tell, which is testament to the skill and ingenuity of the people who made it. Watching a childhood favourite again as an adult can often be disappointing, but when I saw it recently I was able to appreciate all the details that I missed as a child. In particular the villains of the film are incredibly compelling; they are more interesting and ‘fleshed out’ than the protagonist or any of the other good guys. I hope they get round to making a sequel, or even a remake.

Conan The Barbarian – John Millius
It took me a while to realise it but this is one of my favourite films. I must have watched it least once a year for the last ten years, not because I decided to it, but because whenever it’s on TV, I can’t help but watch. By far one of the most quotable of Arnie’s films, but some of the best lines belong to James Earl Jones. James camps it up to the max in his ridiculous wig, but he adds incredible dramatic weight to the film. He’s one of the few actors to portray a worthy nemesis to the big Austrian.

This was Schwarzenegger’s seventh film but his career basically started here. It’s as though the Conan creation story (as presented in this cinematic adaptation) is a metaphor for the life of Arnold himself; born into a poor family who lived in great hardship, perhaps in the wake of a great war, Conan’s youth is stolen from him as he is forced by a seemingly uncaring authority to become greater than his peers in every way. Conan embraces this life and eventually achieves physical greatness unparalleled by any man. Conan’s body becomes his life and livelihood, until he is freed, possibly against his will, and forced to flee to a far off land to take what he can from life. He is reduced to a petty thief, but eventually becomes the biggest thief there is (in every respect) before he finally settled into a position of power, ruler of a great land, feared and respected in equal measure.

Rocky III – Sylvester Stallone
I live my life by the mantra of Clubber Lang: ‘I train alone, and I fight alone, and I win alone’ Hard words from a hard man. In my eyes there is no debate as to which is the best Rocky film (Rocky IV), but the ground was laid with number III; Fight, Training Montage, Fight. Rocky III has a greater legacy than most give it credit for. The Karate Kid and all it’s imitators follow in III’s footsteps. Far from taking the great Rocky and dragging him through the mud, Stallone achieved a kind of cinematic purity with III and IV. Like Stallone’s physique, these films were trimmed of all fat and honed to perfection.

First Blood – Ted Kotcheff
Ditto.
Stallone made his big comeback with The Expendables, which I enjoyed, but it was far too experienced, it lacked the joyful rage of the Rambo films. I suppose after taking us to a darker place with John Rambo (Rambo IV) Sly wanted to make a more complete and contemporary picture. The Expendables would have benefited from having a simpler story with less emphasis on character development. In fact, if I could create my dream cinematic pairing it would be Stallone directed by Terrence Mallick. Screw conventional narrative and dialogued, all we need is to be able to tell basically what’s going on and watch incredible scenes of Stallone destroying the landscape. Such a film would truly be thunderous and stately.

The Expendables

The Expendables – 2010, Sylvester Stallone



That The Expendables is one of the most anticipated films of the year is a reminder of why we go to the cinema; to have fun. Stallone’s latest offering benefits from being released so soon after Inception and Toy Story 3 as it’s a film to be enjoyed on one level. No need for interpretation here, how refreshing.

Much has been made of ‘The Greatest Action Ensemble Ever’, and rightly so, they’re all here; Machine Gun Joe, Rocky, Rambo, Cobra, Tango and John Spartan have made a new action film. That’s enough to get anyone exited.

Other than Jason Statham, the rest of the cast don’t get a lot of time on screen, and of the entire ensemble, it’s Stone Cold Steve Austin who surprises the most. He’s not a great actor, but he has an amazing presence on screen due to his size (he reminds us just how small Stallone actually is) and the fact we can tell that in real life he’s probably not someone you’d want to upset. There’s a scene where he hits a woman in the face, and we shouldn’t laugh, but he has been arrested for spousal abuse.

Mickey Rourke is also good, almost too good. I get the feeling he may have improvised many of his lines, and in his big emotional scene he shows every one else up. Terry Crews is underused, although he gets the best line of the film, and has the biggest muscles.

The Expendables is of course about the action. There’s plenty of it and the standard is high, although personally I prefer my fight sequences to have longer shots that involve more than three strikes between cuts. Stallone isn’t interested in stunningly choreographed martial arts, he likes large men hitting each other very hard and he knows how to shoot it. The final action set piece is reminiscent of both Rambo III and Commando (no bad thing) as it is confined to the bad guys’ compound which must be infiltrated and destroyed in a large explosion.

This is Stallone’s eighth as director, and his attempt to make a contemporary film are clear to see. If there isn’t any action taking place, the majority of shots are composed with a shallow depth of field. It looks like a TV cop show in some scenes (has Sly been watching NCIS?). Even though it’s clearly a big budget film, it doesn’t really look like it cost the reported $80m, maybe they blew it all on cars and bikes?

Stallone has almost been cynical with a lot of the aspects of the film; it was clear to him that a large proportion of the domestic target audience would be UFC-watching, Affliction-wearing, tattooed bikers (or those who aspire to be such things). This may be the reason Stallone’s character hangs out in a tattoo parlour filled with fancy choppers, drives a custom vintage pick-up and is mates with MMA legend Randy Couture.

Will the expendables prompt a resurgence of manly action films being released at the cinema? I don’t think so, but it will do the straight-to-DVD market a world of good. Even though they both turned down roles, Seagal and Van Damme will both benefit from the increased number of action B-Movies that will be made thanks to the popularity of The Expendables.