B113-DES66
5 Films: George Dickerson in Blue Velvet & After
Dark, My Sweet, Josh Becker’s Thou Shalt Not Kill…Except & Running
Time, & Freddy vs. Jason
Copyright © by Dan Schneider, 8/29/03
Recently I
finished taping the 8th Omniversica radio show
for
Sursumcorda in which poets David Alpaugh & Frederick Glaysher
read their poems. An avowed policy of mine is to invite guests I do not
think are bad artists. So, I did not read any of their poetry until after the
show. Similarly, on the previous show I had not watched any of the films of
writer/actor George Dickerson, nor those of filmmaker Josh Becker. After all- if
they turned out to be Tor Johnson & Spike
Lee, respectively, that would put me in a pickle come show time. But, I got the
films afterward & can report that they are all enjoyable, at the very least.
Confession time- I had seen the Psycho sequels years ago & GD had a
part in 1- but I recall none of the films, & I had seen Blue Velvet a
few weeks before the show. Still, I had no reason to cower.
Let me start
with the 2 GD films 1st. Blue Velvet was the 4th David
Lynch film, released in 1986. In the Lynchiverse odd is normal, & so we
follow the travails of a college kid named Jeffrey Beaumont, returning to his
home town to visit his family. In a deserted field he stumbles upon a severed
human ear & takes it to the police department. There he meets a Detective
Williams (played by GD). The young man is reassured that all will be
investigated. The detective is oddly low-key. I had ascribed this to Lynch’s
direction until I later saw the 2nd of the GD films I’ll review.
Nonetheless Jeffrey decides to pursue the case himself. The detective’s
daughter Sandy (Laura Dern) decides to help him uncover the truth after they
suspect her father is concealing information. This leads him to a bad chanteuse,
Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), who does weird things with weirder
people. Jeffrey ends up in her closet, where she discovers him, badgers him,
& ultimately seduces him. He loves Sandy but cannot get enough of Dorothy,
who happens to be involved with a laughing gas-sniffing sexual deviant named
Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) in a performance so over-the-top it’s funny, not
scary. Yet, Jeffrey is scared, & ends up drawn into Dorothy’s &
Frank’s world. He is obsessed with her & has apparently kidnapped her
child & killed her husband- all because he loves her rendition of the song
Blue Velvet (horribly butchered by the Rossellini character). In 1 weird scene a
character named Ben (Dean Stockwell) does an eerie cabaret-type performance in
his apartment to entertain Frank. Jeffrey gets deeper in the shit, Sandy is
drawn in, Dorothy wigs out, & it all leads to a showdown between Jeffrey
& Frank. The good guy wins, gets the good girl (Sandy), & all settles
back to ‘normal’.
That said, the film is interesting, & not as dull & bloated as Dune,
nor dull & silly as Mulholland Drive. Is it a good film? Passable.
Definitely overrated, yet it does try & succeeds- mostly- in being
different. The performance of GD is 1 of the more interesting things in the
film- so low-keyed as to make 1 wonder if the character is really a sentient
being. Is the Detective hiding something? We never find out, & after the
final denouement between Frank & Jeffrey it’s all a moot point anyway.
Yet, GD’s performance is memorable. I’m not quite able to say whether it’s
good or bad- but it lasts in the mind as an appealing oddity.
GD’s performance in After Dark, My Sweet is
remarkably similar- as are the roles. In this film GD's role serves the same purpose-
more than being a character, his role is more of a plot device, &- again-
the performance is low-key to the max, & bizarre, in a world even more
bizarre. Here’s a summary of ADMS plot: the film is adapted from a 1950s crime
novel by Jim Thompson, although updated to modern (1990- the film’s release)
times. Jason Patric plays an ex-pug named Kid Collins who’s escaped from a
mental institution. He was placed there after he went psycho in his last match
& killed his opponent with his bare hands after several low blows. He blows
in to a western desert town (Texas/New Mexico/Arizona?) & orders a drink.
The barkeep is a tough loan shark, named Bert, who razzes the seemingly stolid
pug. When a leggy brunet widow named Fay (Rachel Ward) enters the bar Collins
flirts with her, is rebuffed & ordered to leave by the bartender. When the
barkeep gets rough Collins KO’s him with 1 punch. Collins takes off, but Fay
tracks him down on a road heading out of town & offers him a job as
gardener. He accepts because he has the hots for her. She later introduces him
to Uncle Bud (Bruce Dern), a shamed ex-cop with delusions of grandeur. He hopes
to have Fay set Collins (or Collie- as she calls him) up as the fall guy in a
kidnap scheme of a rich kid. Along the way, after a fallout with Fay, Collie
meets up with a Doc Goldman (GD’s character) who also offers to help him out
with a job as his gardener for his home-run clinic. After a brief stay with the
Doc- whose motives remain unclear (although it is later revealed he was a
‘bachelor’- & therefore deemed as a gay character by some critic)-
Collie returns to Fay’s, despite the Doc’s seeming knowledge of Collie’s
checkered past. Collie ends up kidnapping the kid, who almost dies of diabetes
in their care. Fay comes unglued, so Collie fucks her. Uncle Bud (a sort of
B-version Frank Booth) is almost killed for his debts to Bert, so Collie saves
him & takes over the kidnapping. The kid gets worse, so Collie steals
insulin from Doc Goldman’s office & saves him. Doc comes to Fay’s
wanting an explanation for the theft, sees the kidnapped boy, so Collie kills
him. In the end, Uncle Bud is killed by Bert after he picks up the ransom money,
& Collie & Fay escape with the kid. Collie decides to play martyr &
lets Fay kill him so she can claim she was a victim of his & Uncle Bud’s
sinistry. We end the film probing Collie’s dead eye.
Bizarre. A few years later Oliver Stone made a film similar in style,
albeit a little more comic. That film was U-Turn, with Sean Penn. Jason
Patric is no Sean Penn as an actor, but, the film reeks of a Lynchian type
weirdness, although directed by a James Foley. Again, however, GD’s
performance is memorable- if only for being so damned odd. The voice is almost
whispery, & the delivery slow & deliberate. What motivates the character?
Homosexual lust? Liberal guilt? We never know, but both films & both
performances stick in the mind, even if I cannot say for positive reasons.
The same cannot be said for the 2 films of Josh Becker. The 1st
1 I saw was the DVD of his 1st film, from 1987, Thou Shalt Not
Kill…Except. Becker, on his website
describes the film as
pretty much the Marines vs. the Manson family. That’s about right, although I
would call it more of a comic version of Wes Craven’s The Last House On The
Left. That said, it’s 1 of those films that’s so bad it’s good. JB
calls it the Marines vs. the Manson family. The year is 1969 & Sgt. Jack
Stryker (Brian Schulz) returns from Vietnam to his home town, after being
injured in a battle where 1 of his comrades had to save his life. He longs to
get back with his ex, Sally (Cheryl Hanson). But 2 dark forces descend upon his
hometown- a trio of his former enlisted underlings who drink & carouse their
way through the night while on furlough, & the biker cult led by the
Mansonian figure (played by filmmaker Sam Raimi [Evil Dead & Spider-Man]-
a longtime pal of JB’s). His acting is so bad it’s actually enjoyable. The
cult meets up with Stryker & his men & mayhem ensues. There is no real
horror, nor any seat-edge action, but it is a hoot. Despite a low budget the
film’s details are striking- especially in little things like when a couch
cushion turns out to be damaged on both sides. Also, JB does pretty well in
interweaving actual documentary Vietnam War footage with his more bare bones
actual film. No ‘real’ critic would recommend a film like this, but you can
see an active mind at work- despite limitations & ludicrousies in the film
& screenplay. The DVD’s commentary with JB & another pal (B-film giant
Bruce Campbell) is actually very entertaining. It’s not the typical fellatio
other films boast, but actually provides interesting information. While the film
is not very memorable the DVD commentary is.
The 2nd of JB’s films- his 3rd, 1997’s Running
Time, is a far better, & far more audacious film. It succeeds both
artistically & as pure entertainment. This 1 stars Bruce Campbell as a just
paroled con named Carl. The main wallop of the film is that it is just the 2nd
film in American history to proceed with no apparent cuts (or 1 long take)- the
1st was Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope in 1948. This film masks its
cuts better, though. Yet, it’s not just a gimmick film that unreels in real
time. Carl is picked up at the prison in a large laundry truck by his pal
Patrick (Jeremy Roberts), the guy Carl did time to protect. The 2 have already
worked out a criminal scheme to pilfer some of the money the crooked warden has
been stashing away from excess prison laundry funds. Along the way Patrick
provides Carl with a hooker in back. Carl comes really quickly (5 years &
all- according to JB!) before realizing the hooker is his high school flame
Janie (Anita Barone). They reminisce & make plans to hook up later. She is
then dropped off & Carl & Patrick proceed to pick up 2 other cons to
assist- a drugged out getaway driver named Donny (Gordon Jennison) & an old
black safecracker named Buzz (Stan Davis). Things kibosh immediately. The truck
gets a flat. Then Carl & Patrick stupidly argue in front of 3 captives at
the laundry place (with only minutes before the prison security guards come to
get the loot), the safe turns out to be a harder safe to crack than Buzz
thought, Patrick shoots an old security guard, as they escape Donny has split,
the cops close in, Buzz is shot (I knew he would be the 1 to get it- he’s
black, after all!) & falls, Carl is shot but escapes with Patrick. They
split up, but vow to meet at Janie’s. They do. The lovers reconcile, &
Carl wants to take her with him on the lam. Patrick refuses & he & Carl
go to Patrick’s car to talk about it. The car takes off. Janie thinks she’s
been left. After a minute or 2, Carl bursts in. He gave all the money to
Patrick. True love wins.
Overall a good & audacious film. Considering the $ it took to shoot
it it’s quite a good film, & shows alot of thought behind it. There were
some problems- like the Tarantinovian overtalking of the crooks at the heist,
the obligatory black character getting the worst of things, the hooker with a
heart of gold, & the trite
1940s-era end. But JB pointed out to me that the cynical ending of most films of
the last decade or so has become another cliché- true, but I’d like to have
seen a 3rd- unforeseen- ending, not 1 so telegraphed. But, these are
nitpicks. The film works despite those flaws- even more so than the 2 crime
dramas George Dickerson starred in. & the DVD has another good commentary
from JB & Bruce Campbell.
Overall, from best to worst (on a 1-100 scale) I’d rate the films
thusly: 1) Running Time- 88, 2) After Dark, My Sweet- 82, 3) Blue Velvet- 75,
& Thou Shalt Not Kill…Except- 68 (as a guilty pleasure). Yet, none of
these films was a commercial smash- in fact, JB’s struggled for years to get
made, & then distributed. This a grim testimony to not just the mediocrity
(at best) of Hollywood filmmaking, but the utter timidity. Too often The Machine
is just willing to mindlessly crank out formulaic sequels of what worked before.
This brings me to the 5th & final film I’ll deal with in this
essay. It is a mindless, formulaic sequel- BUT, it works because, like JB’s
TSNKE, it lacks all pretensions to seriousness. The film is Freddy vs. Jason,
in which the titular villains of the Wes Craven’s A Nightmare On Elm Street
& Sean Cunningham’s Friday The 13th films meet.
According to the Internet there have been 6 or 7 prior Elm Street films & 10
or 11 Friday films. Regardless, I’d only seen the original Freddy Krueger
film, & a few minutes of the Jason flicks on late night TV. Neither series
was as interesting nor imaginative as the George Romero Dead films, the
Halloween films, nor even WC’s & SC’s 1st film together The
Last House On The Left. But this film is the best monster vs. monster film
(a tradition going back to Universal’s 1930s films pitting Dracula,
Frankenstein’s monster, the Wolfman, the Invisible Man, & the Mummy in
assorted films) since 1968’s Toho films Godzilla/Rodan/Ghidrah bash Destroy
All Monsters! OK, not exactly a ringing endorsement- but it amazes me how
shortsighted critics are. In 1998 they roasted the American take on Godzilla-
even though the effects were great, the film paid homage to & expanded the
Japanese mythos, & had a good # of laughs & chills. Yet the film was
savaged- what did they expect from a film about a giant lizard that stomps on
assorted metropoli?
Freddy
Krueger (Robert Englund) is a child-killer who was killed in a fire set by
vengeful parents. His strength is to kill kids in their dreams- he’s powerless
in the real world & his weakness is fire. Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger-
Jason #5) was a freak who was drowned by cruel kids at a camp (Camp Crystal) in
1957. He wears a hockey mask & rises from the grave to kill depraved &
lustful teenagers. He cannot be killed, but his weakness is water. This is not
Freud, y’know. The plot for this monster bash is that the kids of Elm Street
have been drugged into a stupor where they cannot dream. Their parents give them
Hypnosil & Freddy is forgotten & powerless. He hopes to right things by
getting Jason to kill some kids so the parents will blame their deaths on him,
causing a chain reaction of fear, & making more kids dream of him, so Freddy
can kill them. Freddy impersonates Jason’s mom in his dreaming death of a
grave. Jason listens to mommy (shades of Psycho) & heads toward Elm
Street. Here is where a little humor comes in, because Freddy (as mom) needs to
remind the stolid Jason that he cannot die, so why is he being a lazy bastard in
his grave when there are kids to kill? Jason heads to the same house where
Freddy’s 1st murder took place nearly 20 years earlier. There he
finds sexy, boobalicious good girl Lori (Monica Keena), token black chick Kia
(Kelly Rowland from pop trio Destiny’s Child), & Heather (Odessa
Munroe)- the alcoholic slut. Over for a party are superjock Trey (Jason’s 1st
victim after a fuckfest with Heather) & dorky Blake (victim 2 or 3- if you
count Blake’s decapitated dad). Meanwhile Lori’s lost (but, really,
institutionalized) love Will (Jason Ritter) returns with a pal- Mark (Brendan
Fletcher). Apparently only they’ve figured out the Freddy-Jason connection.
Will tries to save Lori. The local cops are oafs. Will & Mark (who soon ends
up dead via Freddy) get the town’s teens in a panic over Freddy- even though
they really should fear Jason. Freddy’s powers return, but Jason won’t
simply quit when told. He butchers a few dozen teens at a cornfield rave- all
after being set aflame- including Heather & her would-be teen rapist. The
problem? Freddy was set to kill Heather in her dreams- until Jason spoiled his
fun. Freddy vows to get rid of Jason.
But the
teens that survived cook up a plot with do-gooding Deputy Stubbs Lochlyn
Munroe), the school nerd Linderman (Christopher Marquette), & Jay-like (of
Jay & Silent Bob fame) stoner named Freeburg (Kyle Labine). What else
happens? All the teens, save Will & Lori, die, F & J duke it out in the
dream & real worlds, & there is an apparent victor at the end- until a
wink of an eye from the loser lets us know that films like this never really
end. All-in-all, a joyful mindless romp though genre film. Director Ronny Yu-
most noted for martial arts films & some of the evil doll Chucky
films- does a good job as the film mixes the 2 mythologies very well. The film
is only an hour & a ½, so there is no fat. Of course, closed-minded morons
rave about these films leading to the end of civil society, etc. Bullshit!
Overly-mannered puke-inducing crap like The Hours does. Films like this
are an exhalation after a week of work in a job you loathe, with a boss that is
evil, doing mindless drone-work that has no lasting impact on the universe 3
seconds after it’s done. The same is true with TSNKE, & other films of
their ilk. The greatest sin a work of art can commit is not badness, but
pretentiousness. FvJ knows it’s silly, & indulges such. Would that all of
us would knowingly indulge our sillier sides more often. Then it might be fair
to slam such films as trash. Alack, we don’t, so films like this are an
acceptable tonic in the interim from here to utopia!
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