The Magnificent 7 (1960)

Some say a Hollywood cash-grab. Others say a western masterpiece. I say a decent film.
The death of the gunslinger is looming in this film, "the victory belongs to the farmers" echoes throught both films. The western always echoes death but not many show diversity and imperialisim in a light like this. The characters protect the Mexicans from banditos. exept that not only are all of the characters outsiders in there own right, they belive in justice and freedom.
Like The Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven all have various figures in the film some directly translated some brand new. Yul Brynner (Chris Larabee Adams) is the exact same as Kambei Shimada (the first recruited by the farmers who are old and battle wise). Chico is the same as Katsushirō Okamoto and Kikuchiyo mixed together. Brit is the same knife toting badass as Kyūzō at first declining the role but eventually giving in and helping. Bernardo O'Reilly is the same as Heihachi Hayashida even down to the wood chopping scene. Yet you can not call this film simply a carbon copy it is far from it. There are original and fascinating characters. Lee is a traumatised gun-slinger who fears that anyone of his 'enemies' will kill him at a random time. Vin Tanner is a drifter who thinks about beginning to settle down. And Harry Luck a man in search for treasure. But these characters are not what make the two films stand out from one another. It's the ideals behind the film. In the seven samurai there is always an undertone of dread or tragedy even in scenes of happiness. The death of the Samurai is coming. Whereas the theme in the magnificent 7 is the will for freedom of oppression in the face of adversity. The American ideal. This is shown throughout the film, like when the men are defeated and have to leave the village. Instead of running away they fight for freedom from oppression on the behalf of the scared farmers who as the old man puts it only know fear.

7 samurai

the director, Akira Kurosawa, created meaning in death highlighting every single bandits demise by not effectuating the characters but focusing on the outcome of action unlike modern films. This gives the viewer a great sense of the impact of death. 
In most modern films slow motion is used to show action close up and in detail but in this piece he uses slow motion to show death and its effects on characters and surroundings. He uses a telescopic lens from far away to make things seem faster than they are. He also panned using a telescopic lens to show importance in events or characters. this was incredible filming and incredibly odd for the time. His fast paced cutting is used to keep the film in time like a drum beat.
From the 12 century to the 19th century was the slow downfall of feudal Japan and the samurai as this was the start of a peoples future and democracy. This was set during the 1500s a time when samurai and Ronin could cut down peasants as if they where ants. This film began to illustrate a more democratic future and nothing shows this better in the film than the final battles aftermath and ending. At the end it shows the aftermath of the battle short term and long term. In the short term there is sorrow for no more vengeance for fallen samurai. Yet long term the villagers are happy and the Ronin have served their purpose. yet as the camera catches the 4 graves left their is a feeling of shallowness left. Happiness amongst he people and the representation of a people's future came at the cost of the samurai. Like in reality during the 18th century when samurai had begun to serve the public as dock wardens or policemen before the eventual dying out of the samurai.  Each of the characters in the 7 samurai are an archetype of war: Yohei (the farmer) is  the fear of battle that dies as soon as rage for fallen ones ensue. Kikuchiyo is the vanity of prior won battles yet as seen vanity steeps into love for ones comrades and anger for the enemy. he also understands the peasantry struggles because he himself is one with the farmers.  Kambei is the weariness of war he understands what may happen and accepts this is a peasant victory. Katsushirō  is a young warrior who has never seen battle and only knows stories of war but when faced with loss understands sorrow and anguish.  Kyūzō is discipline respect and honour. he does not boast and even in death is silent and honourable. He is admired by Katsushirō  and is a driving force for the group who turned down helping peasants. But reconsidered and held honour high even when stooping to help peasants. Gorōbei acts as the tactician and creates a map of the area (also giving the viewer an understanding of the area.
Finally Heihachi, the spirit of war always looking on the bright side. Yet dies as the hard times start.
The film creates a vivid image of the graves on the viewer's mind. a solemn reminder of the death of the samurai and the bright future of the commoner.

plein soleil or the talented mr ripley

Plein soleil (purple noon) is a film adaptation of the book the Talented Mr Ripley done as well as it could. The whole point of Mr Ripley is, unlike his 1999 portrayal , A sociopath . A machine. a whimper of feeling gets through him when he kills Phillipe, a shocked expression. But that is more to the scream he lets out. Tom Ripley then assumes his wealth and power by taking on his voice, wearing his clothes and writing his letter. He represented his ability to assume people by pretending to be Phillipe while looking into Phillipe's mirror and wearing Phillipe's clothes. Phil then sees him and questions Tom replies with "it was for a gag" knowing well that Phil understands Tom's ability to cast his nobody life aside and start anew. Yet in Tom's vanity he makes mistakes. Even though he spent days learning Phillipe's signature and speaking in his voice he was too cold and unfeeling to write a convincing letter to Marge. He didn't expect Phil's friends to come looking for him, not knowing how friendship works of course he wouldn't. He didn't expect anyone to think to ask Phil's friends about the murder of Freddie Miles. All of his mistakes where not understanding emotion not mimicking it well enough. When Tom killed Freddie he left him on the floor for half a day and walked round him like a dog asleep on the floor. The way he gets away is by reverting back to his nobody self and pretending to grieve before just enjoying his life and never caring. In the 1999 version it is obvious that Tom at least feels guilty let alone a broken man yet in this 'better' version not a shred of discomfort shows on his smug face he is pleased that he got away with killing his 'friend' and briefly taking his role and convincing suicide. Even his last crime in the movie is lying to Marge and then proceeding to seduce her. All of his actions where driven by sociopathic vanity. The only thing that Tom Ripley feels is love for himself and his needs. everyone else doesn't even show up on his mental radar. Not a blip.

Ready made Reviews: Dog Day Afternoon

Dog Day afternoon is a film with the sole intention of opposing societal norms of challenging what we know is right and wrong. The film experiments with the idea of continuous revelation, we know this because when the film starts we know that this will be a bank robbery and that there are three men involved. We are then told that two of them have been in Vietnam. And so sympathy ensues. Then then we find out one has a family. Empathy. soon we find out that the one who has a family is also homosexual and the only reason that he was doing the bank robbery was to allow his partner to get a sex change operation. Understanding of his situation makes the viewer care about 'Sunny' and his problems.
The way that the story is portrayed is unlike what the news media of the time showed. The viewer has no political skewering to the image. Meaning that they get to see the truth of the matter. This makes the viewer momentarily despise the newscaster and police for withholding truth from the people. When in fact most of the populous trust the police and news to give them a picture of what's going on.
Another prime example of breaking societal norms is wanting the bank robber to get away which is not usually something people want to happen. And the sudden sadness of Sal's death. Again not something normal people feel when a notorious criminal finally reaches his demise at a brave policeman. All  of these contributing factors in creating a cinematic experience that breaks down what people are 'supposed' to feel in return for real emotion. Showing the struggle of a real life story of a homosexual veteran of a lower class family struggling to help other people and facing punishment in return.

Monty Python's Life Of Brian is a satirical comedy about the Christian religion and the bible. The story is based around the trials and tribulations of a person in Judea called Brian; who throughout his entire life is mistaken for the Messiah, oh bugger.
The hilarity of the name Biggus Dickus or lisps is not the meaning of this film. You see for all of its comedic relief and joking it has a deeper message beneath. There is one part where Brian is mistaken for the messiah for not telling people something (what?) and he gives a gourd to a homeless man and the people start praising it (what?!?) and then he loses a sandal and the people believe its a sign and take off their shoes to 'follow the chosen one's example' they then get into an argument with the gourd followers. Which is a striking resemblance to the real world counterpart of one of the worlds different religions and how they split into a few factions with their own silly rules COUGH COUGH Catholics & Protestants COUGH COUGH. This along with 'The Peoples Front of Judea' and 'The Judean Peoples Front' and the critically acclaimed 'Popular Peoples Front of Judea' (with a whopping one member) gives the impression that organised groups or religions shouldn't be split into factions if they're all fighting for the same cause. This was a statement on Christianity as a religion. in 1979 in Britain to a mainly religious audience. In fact showing this film was a very brave thing to do seeing as it is basically a middle finger up to The Bible and Christianity (which could have been the end of the studio, and yes it was). In fact I might say it was Blasphemous! especially the part where Brian tells everyone to be individual and not be 'sheep following the heard' because man that would kill Christianity if the general public started doing that then the whole Jesus = Shepard would be entirely irrelevant. I have been Milo AKA Biggus Dickus (extra lisp edition) and this has been my review of Life Of Brian. New Reviews fortnightly. Thank you.








sorry I've been away for a little while family matters (in both meanings of the word)
but new reviews every fortnight. Thank you for veiwing

The Big Lebowski

Unfortunately majority of Coen brother films aren't very deep
they are just movie nerds taking the piss out of the detective genre, meaning there is no deeper meaning, but they wont tell you this because us mere mortals may corrupt if we where to know what they know. But here is the basic idea behind it anyway. The Big Lebowski is a film about a detective who can't detect what is right in front of him. You may be confused why I say it is a detective film when obviously it isn't. well what genre is it? stoner comedy? not even close! It takes heavily from a detective movie called the Big Sleep; a story about a kidnapping- a detective that is perceived to be dumb-set in LA Hollywood- even the employer the kidnap victims husband is old, wheelchair-bound,  rich businessman who wanted to pin the kidnapping of his wife on a group who claims they have! - sound familiar at all?- written 1939. Film made 1942. If you think detective you think 30s-50s and this was written and filmed in the 30s - 50s so... yea. This time was WWII, and mainly centred around a character outcast by society at that time trying their hardest to be accepted by their fellow private eyes and policemen and catch the crook. Our movie is set in the gulf war- a war that accomplished nothing, it was simply a military stand off, much referencing to the plot, a plot that starts walks in a circle while dribbling and goes absolutely no where. on the other hand most detective movies actually have a story that gets resolved! Like most Coen films the detective theme is referenced many times throughout the movie.
There are many points where you think the plot is going to go somewhere but just goes off on another tangent that leads back to the start. Example: when Jackie Treehorn invites the dude in and gets a phone call and 'writes' something down but its just a false end. Or when his rug is taken another time and you think its going to be a huge plot point but is just another character introduction.
There is one more point to be made, all the characters are stuck in different time periods- The Dude is stuck in the flower power age of the 1960s, Walter is stuck in the Vietnam war (and his marriage), Maude is stuck in the 80s nihilist art period. showing how these characters interact with the modern world (man I fuckin' hate the Eagles). This mixed with the exposition-less dialogue and dark humour makes it a joy to watch.











^(o-o) hands up who thinks the Jesus scene is a cinematic masterpiece