FILM 1878: NEAR DARK

FILM 1878: NEAR DARK

TRIVIA: While shooting in the desert, Lance Henriksen relieved the boredom between takes by hopping in his car and taking short drives through the desert, still in costume and often staying in character. According to Henriksen and Bill Paxton, the two were stopped by a policeman who became so unnerved questioning Jesse about his speeding that the officer became visibly uncomfortable, stepping back and placing his hand on his firearm. The obviously flustered officer decided to send them on their way rather than write them a ticket.

Unusual for a vampire movie, the word "vampire" is never mentioned.

Future husband James Cameron suggested to Bigelow that she use the ready-made ensemble cast from his recent hit Aliens (1986), and thus Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Jenette Goldstein all appear in Bigelow's film. Michael Biehn had also appeared in Aliens and was considered, but declined to participate.

This film marked Kathryn Bigelow's first solo directorial effort and the film's producer, Edward S. Feldman told her that if she couldn't handle or didn't know what she was doing while filming after five days, she would be replaced. She kept the job.

At approximately 21:13 of the movie, when Caleb in stumbling through the town in Texas, in the background there is a Warner cinema playing Aliens (1986), a movie also starring several of the main characters from Near Dark - including Lance Henriksen (Jessie), Bill Paxton (Severen), and Jenette Goldstein. (Diamondback).

At the start of the bungalow gunfight scene, a cross can be seen in the handle of Jesse's pistol alluding to the idea that these vampires do not follow the same "rules" of traditional vampire mythology.

When Severen and Jesse torch the motor home, Severen asks Jesse if he had remembered about a "fire that they had started in Chicago". It is assumed that they mean the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 that left more than 100,000 people homeless and destroyed businesses. Though apocryphal legend attributes the fire to a cow who kicked a lantern, the cause still remains a mystery.

FILM 1847: WILD WILD WEST

FILM 1847: WILD WILD WEST

TRIVIA: Will Smith turned down the lead role in The Matrix (1999) to star in this movie, being a fan of the television series. He later said this was the worst decision he made in his career.

The film underwent costly re-shoots in an attempt to inject some humor after it was found that test audiences weren't sure if it was supposed to be a comedy.

Though a box-office failure in the U.S. (it managed to turn a profit overseas), it's commonly joked that the only reason the film earned any money at all is because unaccompanied minors would buy tickets to this film, then use them to sneak into screenings of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) and American Pie (1999).

Belle was originally cast with, and filmed with British actress Phina Oruche. Reportedly, the chemistry needed for the bathtub love scene wasn't there. The scene was recast and re-shot with Garcelle Beauvais. However, Oruche was not told, and found out she was no longer in the film at the premiere in Los Angeles.

Kevin Smith has said that the giant spider was producer Jon Peters' idea for the later-abandoned "Superman Lives" project with Nicolas Cage and Tim Burton.

Wild Wild West is featured in episode 257 of the "bad movie" podcast, We Hate Movies.

THE IMDB TOP 250

Around about 2011 I took a snapshot of the IMDB Top 250 and decided to make my way through it. On Friday I succeeded.  I decided to complete the list as an easy way to pick films to see but also to force myself to watch films I wouldn’t normally watch.  I was also interested to see which films I would enjoy.  As a thriller and horror fan it was interesting for me to see how many horror films would make the list and how some films are regarded highly over others.

(The reason it took me so long is that I didn’t just exclusively watch these Top 250 films but other films between. Towards the end of the list I would put off watching things; like Das Boot (1981) as it’s a German War film totaling almost four hours long; which actually wasn’t all as bad as it sounds but you can understand why I was putting it off)

Some things I have learnt:

I DON’T LIKE WESTERNS. 

I already knew I didn’t like westerns but after sitting through what are considered the best, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) sits at number four on this list, I know that I will never be a western fan.  I can appreciate that they are good films but there’s something about all that gruffness, dust, dirt and gunslinging that I just can’t get excited about.  It’s not the stories though, that are bad, Yojimbo (1961) and A Fistful of Dollars (1964) are the same story and I really enjoyed watching Yojimbo (1961). Possibly I prefer subtitles to bad dubbing?

I LIKE SAMARAI FILMS. 

Believe me no one eise was more surprised than me! I had never seen a Samurai film until I started this list and I am now a big fan.  There were Five Kurosawa films on the list (although not all were Samurai films.) I was pleasantly surprised with his whole approach to film making, he had a style completely of his own and something that has never been replicated since. Most significantly for me was his collaborative style with the amazing actor Toshirô Mifune was mesmerizing to watch.

NOT ALL SILENT MOVIES ARE CREATED EQUAL.

Buster Keaton in my opinion is far superior to Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin outweighs Keaton’s movies 5:2 on this list but in my opinion many of those Chaplin films are overrated.  I think there is a lot of favourtism on this list and this works in Chaplin’s favour. He is one of the most famous faces of film and therefore I believe people rated him highly.  I don’t doubt his talent; he wrote, directed and composed the music for many of his films, but I just don’t think they work as comedies any more, whereas Keaton’s work I believe has a humour that stands the test of time. I also think it goes without saying that Keaton’s stunts far outweighed Chaplin’s and found me on the edge of my seat even today, or should I say especially today, as many feats were actually performed, nowadays everything is done with computers and special effects.

I’M ACTUALLY QUITE FOND OF WAR FILMS. 

I wouldn’t have said I hated war films before.  I loved Platoon and Apocalypse Now, but I’d never really watched anything about any of the earlier wars before this list.  And two of my newly discovered favorites happen to be war films.  La Grande Illusion (1937) is a French film based on French officers during WWI.  This film has everything, escape plans, friendship, debates on class and race and nationality, castles, a great villain (or is he the victim?) and an ending with which will make even the stiffest lip tremble.  One of the most emotional films on this list (but more about this later) with one of the most complicated male relationships I’ve ever seen on film. I couldn’t recommend this enough; it’s everything The Great Escape (1963) wished it could be.  The second hidden gem was The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Technically not a war film but about the aftermath of WWII, it concentrates on the lives of soldiers returning home.  I say it’s a hidden gem but this film won a staggering nine Oscars, which is why it was so hard for me to believe that I’d never heard of it before.  There are many films like this in the world that make me glad I decided to make my way through the list otherwise I may never have seen it. Out of the whole list these are the two I recommend most, as most of the other films are so obvious and many people have never heard of these.

I CRY, A LOT.

Before this list I can only ever remember crying during two films, The Fox and the Hound (1981) when I was very young and The Elephant Man (1980) in my early twenties.  Now I’ve added a few more to the list. La Grande Illusion (1937) is one of them.  Others include (though not exclusively) what may be considered one of the most depressing films of all time Grave of the Fireflies (1988), the story of children in war-torn Japan (need I say more), Life Is Beautiful (1997) about a father and son in a Nazi concentration camp, this one is known as a tragicomic tragedy which only hints at the emotional rollercoaster you are sent on, and Ikiru (1952), which I believe contains one of the world’s most emotionally manipulative scenes in cinema, he’s on a swing, he’s singing a song, he’s going to die, it’s snowing, I won’t go into details but I challenge anyone not to at least have a lump in their throat during that scene.

NEW FILMS WILL GO ON THERE BUT THEY GENERALLY WON’T BE FOR LONG.

As the IMDB list is based on user ratings this will always happen. With a new blockbuster comes hype and with hype comes enthusiastic ratings but everything evens out eventually, some stand the test of time; these are the future classics, while others drop off the list mostly to be replaced with others.

These are a few of the films on my list that dropped off within a couple of years:

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

District 9 (2009)

Ratatouille (2007)

Hugo (2011)

Drive (2011)

Avatar (2009)

Let the Right One In (2008)

Currently standing the test of time:

The Dark Knight (2008)

Inception (2010)

Shutter Island (2010)

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

I HAD TO WATCH A LOT OF FOREIGN FILMS.

I don’t know if it’s because it’s seen as highbrow, I don’t know if it’s pretentious or whether real film fans are not put off by them but there are a surprisingly high number of foreign films on the list.

We have to wait till film number 14 to get to a foreign film but out of the 250 there are around 47-50 non-English films on the list which in an age where it seems like a lot of people like to look down at their phones while ‘watching’ a film is surprising and welcoming to me. It means some people really are watching.  When I watch a subtitled film I feel like I really have to make time for it, like it’s more of an event as I can’t be working in the background or drawing, I really have to pay attention.  Some of my favourite foreign films (not including the ones mentioned earlier) are Amelie (2001), I think the storytelling mixed with rich visuals make this stunning, The Lives of Others (2006), (this is another tearjerker) it’s an exploration of loneliness, this comes across more to me than any of the themes of the secret police, betrayal and surveillance, and The Secret in Their Eyes (2009), a twisting, turning, beautifully paced and skillfully made piece of film, they have remade it in English but I can’t see how it can be as good as the original.

INGMAR BERGMAN IS OVERRATED

This list contains Four Bergman films and I begrudgingly sat through each of them.  I had never seen a Berman film before this list and I started with the highest rated, The Seventh Seal (1957,) with some excitement.  I had seen many references to it in popular culture; most famously Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991), and I assumed the film would be a joy to watch.  Unfortunately, I was bored, at an hour and thirty-seven minutes it’s an hour too long, I couldn’t wait for it to end.  Does this make me an uneducated philistine? No, it makes me someone who watches a film to be educated and entertained. Some of the imagery is wonderful, if anything, Bergman does dream-like like no one else, but he’s no storyteller in my opinion, the dialog waffles and the plots are almost empty. I apologize if you are a fan but I believe there are four films more worthy of this list than his four, if it were my list I’d replace them with:

True Romance (1993)

Band of Outsiders (1964)

La Vie en Rose (2007)

The Haunting (1963)

WHERE ARE ALL THE DOCUMENTARIES?

Documentary films are not included on the Top 250 list. Rather unfairly I think.  I adore documentaries and I would love to see the rules changed so documentaries could be added.

Some Documentaries I think should definitely make the list:

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991 Documentary)

Capturing the Friedmans (2003 Documentary)

Grey Gardens (1975 Documentary)

Burden of Dreams (1982 Documentary)

Bowling for Columbine (2002 Documentary)

Here is a list of documentaries I have seen and enjoyed, many of them would be too obscure to recieve a mention on the Top 250 list but still excellent films http://www.imdb.com/list/ls031294350/

WHAT TO WATCH NOW?

Sometimes wqtching great films and masterpieces are hard work and etotionally straining. So for now I;m watching a few horror films, currently I’m making my way through the Amicus films, there’s a few that I’ve never seen and after that… After that I might make my way through the 1001: Movies You Must See Before You Die http://www.amazon.co.uk/1001-Movies-You-Must-Before/dp/1844038793/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456685163&sr=8-1&keywords=1001+movies+you+must+see+before+you+die

FILM 1287: FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE

TRIVIA: Sergio Leone broke many 1960s Hollywood rules with this film, although he did not know any of them at the time. Among them: showing the shooter and the victim in the same shot, a horse being gunned down, marijuana use, and a rape scene.

The Man With No Name (Clint Eastwood) calls himself Monco in this film. "Manco" is Spanish for "lame of one hand", "one handed" or "one armed", which is pretty appropriate considering his habit of fighting, drinking, etc with his left hand only. His right hand always remains on his gun underneath his trademark poncho.

Cameo: Sergio Leone:  The whistling heard in the background before the opening credits.

FILM 1282: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST

TRIVIA: Al Mulock, who played one of the three gunmen in the opening sequence, committed suicide by jumping from his hotel window in full costume after a day's shooting. Production manager Claudio Mancini and screenwriter Mickey Knox, who were sitting in a room in the hotel, witnessed Mulock's body pass by their window. Knox recalled in an interview that while Mancini put Mulock in his car to drive him to the hospital, director Sergio Leone said to Mancini, "Get the costume! We need the costume!" Mulock, who had appeared as the one-armed bounty hunter in Leone's "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly", was wearing the costume he wore in the movie when he made his fatal leap.

For the opening sequence where the three dusters waited for the train, filmmakers lightly coated the face of Jack Elam with jam and began filming close-ups while letting a fly out of a jar filled with flies, attempting to get Elam's reaction as one would land on his cheek.

John Landis was one of the stunt men on this film.