619. The Last Wave (1977)

Running Time: 105 minutes
Directed By: Peter Weir
Written By: Peter Weir, Tony Morphett, Petru Popescu
Main Cast: Richard Chamberlain, Olivia Hamnett, David Gulpilil, Frederick Parslow, Vivean Gray
Click here to view the trailer

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY

So I've plotted everything out and if I'm willing to put in some serious overtime (and I do mean SERIOUS), I still have a fighting chance at finishing this project up on Halloween. I've asked for my wife's permission to be drowned in moves for the next couple weeks and since she's been streaming The Walking Dad via Netflix, she's more than happy to oblige me. Hey, speaking of drowning...

Ewww remember Picnic at Hanging Rock? Man, I sure did when I went to pop in The Last Wave. However, having just seen The Truman Show last month, I was in need of a little more Peter Weir so that I could bang out some definitive opinions on the Aussie director. The film takes place in Australia and gets underway when an Aborigine is murdered by a group of fellow Aborigine. When the autopsy is complete, it is deemed that he drowned in a puddle of water after being beaten by a group of boys, however, we know that a someone shook a bone at him, put a curse on his ass and he dropped over dead. Meanwhile, family man and lawyer David Burton can't get to sleep. He's been having really vivid, weird dreams that he can't explain and can't shake even after waking in fright. It is David who takes on the case of the four Aborigine accused of murder, the head of the group, a man named Chris (Gulpilil). David seems to think that Chris is keeping something from him regarding the murder (which the audience knows is true), but Chris refuses to release anymore information regarding the bizarre circumstances surrounding the victim. Add to all that the fact that the weather in Australia has been becoming increasingly violent, with torrential downpours becoming commonplace and David's dreams eluding that the weather may be more than just a normal forecast.

My wife started this with me, but at about the forty minute mark she decided to check out (The Walking Dead strikes again). To be honest, I can't really blame her. Though I was intrigued at that point, I wasn't so intrigued that I'd have stuck around if I was any less of a movie fanatic. I'm still not really sure exactly what the endgame was here? So David could predict the future? Okay, so this was more of a supernatural film than any sort of real, serious attempt at a cohesive story? Fine. By the end, we're given some cock & bull story about David belonging to some ancient tribe that was able to prophesize the future via their dreams. However, by day he plays Clark Kent, tacks on a pair of nerdy glasses & wig and transforms into a lawyer. I think I've seen this somewhere before.

In all seriousness, I WAS indeed intrigued, but unfortunately not intrigued enough to shower any sort of praise at this one. The ultra dreary atmosphere was enough to keep me mildly engaged and this was also my introduction to Richard Chamberlain, whom I took to and immediately thought I'd need to seek out more of his work, in the future. However, this was just too confusing and muddled for me and for a film that seemed to be leading to a big payoff at the end, what we got in the final climax wasn't enough to justify this ultimately boring affair at the movies. I may look back on this film and remember it fondly someday (atmosphere, mild intrigue and Chamberlain the reasons why), but thankfully I author a blog, so that I'll be able to peruse previous thoughts and realize that this wasn't the film for me. Weir is officially 1-3 (1 for "Truman" and 3 for "Last Wave", "Hanging Rock" and "Gallipoli").

My expression at the end of The Last Wave

RATING: 5/10  Split it in half and call it a day. I was really hoping this would be good too, as I was all set and ready to add another contender to the TOP 20 candidates. For the curious, the films leading the pack as of this writing are: The Decalogue, Stroszek, The Deer Hunter, Scarface and Fitzcarraldo. I'd be very surprised if that wasn't your TOP FIVE right there - just not necessarily in that order.

MOVIES WATCHED: 982
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 19

671. Gallipoli (1981)

Running Time: 110 minutes
Directed By: Peter Weir
Written By: David Williamson, Peter Weir
Main Cast: Mark Lee, Mel Gibson, Robert Grubb, Tim McKenzie, David Argue
Click here to view the trailer

WAR DOWN UNDER

Despite being up since 6:30 this morning (technically yesterday morning, now) and spending four hours Christmas shopping earlier this evening, I'm staying up late tonight to bring you the first post of December 2012 - "Gallipoli".

"Gallipoli" is a war film, but doesn't start out as such. In the opening scene we see an uncle motivating his nephew, Archibald Hamilton (Lee), a runner who is readying himself for a big race. The film continues on with a pretty good hook, establishing Archy as a superb athlete, betting another man that he can race faster on foot than he can on his horse. Meanwhile, however, World War I rages on around the world and young men in Australia, especially Archy, long to enlist in the service and do their patriotic duty. One man who doesn't long to enlist, however, is Frank Dunne (Gibson), another runner who has plans of opening his own bike shop. After Archy's big race (where he competes against Frank and wins), he informs his uncle that he won't be returning home and proceeds to enlist. When the local division won't take him, because they recognize him as not being twenty-one or over, he travels to Perth, in the company of Frank, to try his luck there. Along the way, Archy convinces Frank to sign up and succeeds; both men now ready for battle. Soon the men are sent to Cairo, where they undergo training in the Australian Imperial Force and discover the wonders of the world, outside of Australia. The film culminates with the battle in the city of Gallipoli.

SPOILER ALERT!

I was enjoying this movie for a while, but then, suddenly, my proverbial umbilical chord to the screen was severed and I slowly, like a dying man losing blood, started to lose interest.The hook was great and I was on board all the way up until Frank and Archy enlisted and were sent to Cairo. That's about the time my personal movie preference calculator clicked off and I shifted into auto pilot. Everything up to that point was fine - decent acting, especially from Gibson, an enjoyable story and it looked like we were going to really establish these characters and make the audience become attached to them before we sent them into battle. However, at about the time they went to Cairo, I sort of stopped caring about where the characters would end up and just hoped they got their as fast as possible. From there, the film really slacks off and all we get for a good chunk is a linking together of various scenes, showing the Australian boys adjusting to life outside of the Outback. It's all very repetitive and dull and gets really old, really fast. Of course, things pick back up during the last 15 - 20 minutes, as we witness the tragic battle of Gallipoli and I couldn't help but be reminded of the film that kicked off this season - " Paths of Glory".

Is it just me or do all war films show the dehumanization of man and the loss of innocence, without ever really establishing any hard and fast characters. Sure, "Gallipoli" does a better job than most war films at establishing it's central characters, but I still wasn't very emotionally invested in them come time for battle. I guess that's better than the usual "band of brothers" that are thrown together, who are barely given identities or personalities - all we need know is that they are soldiers, that's enough. In "Gallipoli", it's as if Weir started out with the intention of introducing us to a couple of characters, but then stopped halfway and said "Eh that's enough". "Gallipoli" wasn't a bad film or anything, but be prepared for a steep drop off come about the forty-five minute mark or so. Like I said though, the ending is very emotional and very well done and honestly, I think I would've preferred a short film that just contained the last twenty-minutes of this movie.

RATING: 6/10  Kind of a 'meh' feeling on this one, although certainly not bad. Call it a thumbs staunchly in the middle.

MOVIES WATCHED: 596
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 405

December 1, 2012  2:50am

599. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

Running Time: 108 minutes
Directed By: Peter Weir
Written By: Cliff Green, from novel by Joan Lindsay
Main Cast: Rachel Roberts, Vivean Gray, Helen Morse, Kristy Child, Tony Llewellyn-Jones

I THOUGHT PICNIC'S WERE SUPPOSED TO BE FUN

Today's choice, as we edge closer and closer to the milestone of 301 films watched, was "Picnic at Hanging Rock". Peter Weir was the director and upon reading the synopsis, it sounded as if the film was going to be very good. It sounded wrong.

The premise is fairly simple, so retelling it here shouldn't be too much of a chore. The film takes place on Valentine's Day 1900 and the location is the Appleyard Hall, a school for girls located in Australia. The school is headed by Mrs. Appleyard (Roberts), a prim and proper, yet sometimes crotchety old woman. Upon the opening moments of the film a picnic is being planned for the girls, in which they will travel to Hanging Rock and be served a luncheon, return later that night and write an essay on Hanging Rock. The girls are taken to their destination via horse and carriage and when they arrive they do as planned and have their picnic. Later that day, several of the girls, including Miranda (Anne-Louise Lambert), Irma, Marion and Edith, get permission to go exploring on Hanging Rock. The foursome reach one of the high points of the rock and seem to fall under a spell, removing their boots and stockings and taking a nap. Later, the four wake up and despite Edith's instructions not to, Miranda, Marion and Irma, climb higher...never to be seen again. Also, one of the instructors, Mrs. McCraw (Gray), goes missing as well.

Man, was this a chore to sit through. Before I go bashing a completely innocent film, allow me to shine what little praise I have for the film. For starters, the atmosphere, photography and score were all fantastic and provided a really strange aura to the whole film, which otherwise had a pure and innocent demeanor. There are some shots in there that seem to be pulled from an artists brain and the classical score that accompanies even the eeriest of happenings, works very well. Beethoven's Emperor Concerto is a gorgeous piece of music and I hereby condone it's use in any film where it would be used to it's full extent and beauty.

Other than those three elements, the film itself was a hell of a chore to sit through. While it didn't drag or seemingly make real time go slower, it was just very uninteresting and honestly, I didn't care about any of the characters. In fact, the only characters worth caring about were the missing characters and they were hardly in the film. I understand what Weir was going for here, having an unsolved mystery and trying to conjure up fear of the unknown, but it just seemed to go nowhere. From the moment that the girls disappear until the end of the film, seemingly nothing happens. I mean, sure things happen, but nothing of any real note. From there on it's just a bunch of meaningless strides to get to the end of the film, in my view. I'll stop there because it's obvious that outside of score, cinematography and atmosphere, this was just not going to be a film that I liked and as per my tastes, it was going to be a chore and it was.

RATING: 2.5/10 Even those certain details that attracted me to the film could not raise this film very high. Instead they were all simply lost on a dull picture.

MOVIES WATCHED: 288
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 713

July 11, 2011 10:06pm