Sounds of Cinema

Frozen River Film Festival

2012-01-26T21:01:00.000-08:00

For those of you in the Winona area, the Frozen River Film Festival is now underway. You can find the schedule of screenings here. There were some last minutes changes to the schedule so you may want to consult the website before heading out to the events.

Best and Worst Films of 2011

2012-01-22T08:16:00.000-08:00

On today's episode of Sounds of Cinema I counted down my picks of the best and worst films of the past year:

Best:

1. Margin Call

2. Shame

3. The Artist

4. Melancholia

5. Hanna

6. A Better Life

7. Page One: Inside the New York Times

8. 50/50

9. Hugo

10. Warrior

Worst:

Jack and Jill
Your Highness
The Hangover Part II
Priest
Sleeping Beauty
Bad Teacher
Road to Nowhere
Mr. Popper's Penguins
30 Minutes or Less
Sucker Punch

You can find more information, including rationales for each film and lists of honorable mentions and cinematic trends of 2011, here.

And lastly, here is a clip from Hardball with Chris Matthews in which the host interviews Margin Call director J.C. Chandor and actor Kevin Spacey about their film.

2011 Year End Wrap Up Episode

2012-01-20T02:27:00.000-08:00

The Sounds of Cinema episode for January 22 will review the year 2011 and I'll unveil my picks of the ten best and worst films of the past year. Be sure to tune in to see if your favorite films made the cut.

January Updates

2012-01-10T00:12:00.000-08:00

Happy (belated) New Year.

Any of you who check out this blog on a regular basis have probably noticed the lack of posting in it throughout the last quarter of 2011. My apologies for that. Circumstances beyond my control made it difficult, if not impossible, to make meaningful contributions to either of my blogs, but I'm resolved to return to regular postings in 2012.

Another year has come to a close, and that means I am at work on a special episode reflecting on the films released in the previous year, including a countdown of my picks of the best and worst pictures. I've been busy screening notable films from the past year that I missed during their theatrical run because they didn't get released in this area, they were pulled from theaters too quickly, or I refused to see them in the theater (Smurfs, I'm looking at you).

Because I am so busy screening films and putting together the year end wrap up, this weekend (January 15th) will see a rerun of an earlier episode. The 2011 Year End Wrap Up is planned to air January 22nd, 2012. Remember that you can find previous year end wrap ups here.

In the meantime, here are some links to other end of 2011 retrospectives from other critics:

Mark Kermode picks his favorites and least favorites of 2011.
The Cinema Snob's picks of the worst films of 2011.
Roger Ebert's picks of the best films of 2011.
Richard Roeper's picks of the best and worst of 2011.
The A.V. Club's picks of the best of 2011.
Rotten Tomatoes list of the 100 best reviewed films of 2011.
Todd McCarthy's picks of the 30 best films of 2011.
Peter Travers' picks of the 10 best films of 2011.
Kenneth Turan's picks of the best films of 2011.
The Huffington Post: 11 Great Films You May Have Missed
Owen Gleiberman's picks of the 10 best of 5 worst films of 2011.
Lisa Schwartzbaum's picks of the 10 best and 5 worst films of 2011.

'V for Vendetta' Screening at WSU

2011-11-03T17:40:00.000-07:00

The Winona State University History Association is sponsoring a screening of V for Vendetta at 7pm on November 5, 2011 in the Somsen Auditorium on the Winona State campus.

Although I gave a mixed review to this film at the time of its release (you can find the review in the archive) , V for Vendetta has become an important motion picture. The Guy Fawkes mask worn by the hero has become an international symbol for resistance movements, popping up everywhere from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street.

Check out this video from the time of V for Vendetta's release, in which pundits debate the merits and political message of the film.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Sounds of Cinema Halloween Special

2011-10-28T11:10:00.000-07:00

Don't miss the annual Sounds of Cinema Halloween Special.

Listeners to 89.5 KQAL FM in Winona, MN can hear the special at 11pm on Sunday, October 30th.

Listeners to 89.7 KMSU FM in Mankato, MN can hear the special at 1pm on Monday, October 31st.

Remember, those not in the broadcast area can hear the show live streaming over the web or via an app for mobile devices. Visit each stations' website for details.

KMSU Pledge Drive

2011-10-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

89.7 KMSU FM in Mankato is currently holding its fall pledge drive. Please consider supporting this station with a financial commitment.

KMSU and stations like it are unique in the media landscape. In an environment where media is increasingly homogenized and the content of local airwaves is programmed by corporate offices in distant locales, KMSU is the rare place where local, original content is generated and broadcast. The station serves local businesses, organizations and artists and gives them a unique platform to express their ideas.

This is a very challenging time for independent radio. Although KMSU recieves some funding from Minnesota State University Mankato, the station is expected to generate a portion of its own revenue. In times of economic stress that expectation may become greater as other interests compete for state funding. Across the nation, many colleges and universities are abandoning their radio stations to make ends meet in these challenging economic times. When this happens it isn't just students who lose. It is the entire community.

If you are a listener to this station, or just believe in supporting community radio and local media, please consider making a pledge. You can make on online pledge here or call the station at 507-389-5678 or 1-800-456-7810.

Sinclair McKay Interview Available Online

2011-10-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

My interview with Sinclair McKay, author of A Thing of Unspeakable Horror: The History of Hammer Films, is now available as a downloadable mp3. You can find it here.

Interview with Sinclair Mckay on Sounds of Cinema

2011-10-14T17:30:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, October 16th, Sounds of Cinema will continue the ongoing Halloween theme with a look at the films of Britain’s Hammer studio. This episode will feature music from films like Dracula: Prince of Darkness, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, and She as well as an interview with Sinclair McKay, the author of A Thing of Unspeakable Horror: The History of Hammer Films.

Sounds of Cinema October Programs 2011

2011-09-30T00:14:00.000-07:00

Throughout October, Sounds of Cinema will feature a month-long Halloween theme. Every episode this October will be organized around some Halloween-related motif.

October 2, 2011: The Horror of Non-Horror Films
I'll take a look at films not categorized in the horror genre but use horrific images and themes. This episode will include music from films like Requiem for a Dream, Inglorious Basterds, and Apocalypse Now.

October 9, 2011: Folk Tales and Urban Myths
This episode will include music from films that are adapted from folk tales and urban myths, including Sweeney Todd, Candyman, and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

October 16, 2011: Hammer Films
Sounds of Cinema will take a look back at the legacy of Hammer Films, one of the most important studios in horror film history, and feature music from James Bernard and others.

October 23, 2011: Weird Science
This episode will focus on the overlap of science fiction and horror and include music from films such as Bride of Frankenstein, Aliens and The Thing.

October 30, 2011: Devil's Night
The last regularly scheduled October episode will look at films featuring Satan or devil-related characters or themes such as The Devil's Advocate, The Devil and Daniel Webster, and Lucifer Rising. (Those listening on 89.7 KMSU FM will hear a pledge drive episode.)

October 30, 2011: Halloween Special
A Sounds of Cinema Halloween Special featuring music and audio clips will air at 11pm on 89.5 KQAL FM in Winona.

Sounds of Cinema 9/25/2011

2011-09-25T15:10:00.000-07:00

Today's episode of Sounds of Cinema was a replay of my look at the American Film Institute's list of the twenty-five greatest film scores. Check out this previous post, in which I provide a list of alternate scores and soundtracks.

9/11 Film Series: Final Thoughts

2011-09-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

The week of September 11 - 16th, 2011 I coordinated a 9/11 Film Series on the Winona State University campus to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attack.

During the 2010-11 school year I began sponsoring campus film screenings as a way of promoting the show and expanding its mission. Initially I thought it would be good fun, and it was, to show a few provocative and important pictures and hopefully tie them into larger issues going on in cinema and in the culture at large.

Over the summer of 2011 I was struck with the approaching ten year anniversary of the 9/11 attack but when I tried to nail down a single film that would encapsulate the event or some piece of its aftermath, I felt as though I were neglecting the greater whole. So I decided that the only way I could really deal with the anniversary of 9/11 was to show a series of films that addressed, if not all, at least a broad spectrum of the issues involved.

Once I realized I’d have to show a series of films I knew I was going to need financial support and so I brought the project to a variety of campus departments, organizations, and individuals and the response was very positive. In all, the 9/11 Film Series was sponsored Winona State University's Communication Studies Department, English Department, Department of Housing and Residence Life, Department of Theater and Dance, Office of Inclusion and Diversity, Office of Student Life and Development, the Philosophy Department, University Programming Activities Committee, Vic Colaizzi and Anne Plummer of the Art Department, and Jim Williams of the Theater Department. This coalition got behind the project and I’m grateful to them for helping to make this happen.

As I set about devising the screening schedule there were of course practical considerations based on what was available and what I’d be able to afford. But I also felt that the selection and arrangement of films should not be random but should take the viewers through the event and its aftermath.

One element I wanted to avoid was deliberate political partisanship. I have my own feelings about 9/11 and its aftermath but I did not believe it was appropriate for me to use the film series as a soap box or to use films that did the same. A lot of Hollywood’s response to September 11th was made of liberal soapbox statements such as Rendition and Redacted (as well as a few conservative battle cries like 300 and The Path to 9/11) and most of those pictures weren’t very good anyway so leaving them out was not difficult. But even pictures that were successful such as Green Zone or documentaries that were important to the history of the September 11th period such as Michael Moore’ Fahrenheit 9/11 had to be excluded because including them would alienate part of the audience and obfuscate the issues that needed to be dealt with.

In 1974 director Peter Davis released the documentary Hearts and Minds, which remains, in my opinion, one of the finest documentaries about the Vietnam War. According to Davis, he developed the film around three questions: Why did we go to Vietnam? What did we do when we got there? And what did that, in turn, do to us? As I selected and arranged the films in this series, I adapted Davis’ questions: What happened on 9/11? What did we do in response? And what did our response do to us?

From there I assembled six pictures that would address these questions, starting with United 93, directed by Paul Greengrass, which dramatizes and restages the 9/11 attack with an emphasis on the events aboard United Airlines Flight 93. That was followed by Osama, which is an Afghani film about a girl and her family living under the Taliban, and a pair of documentaries: Restrepo, which documents American troops in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, and Taxi to the Dark Side, which addresses the use of enhanced interrogation techniques by the American military and intelligence services. The series wrapped up with The Messenger, which is a dramatization about soldiers on a Casualty Notification Team, and Four Lions, which is a dark comedy about suicide bombers.

United 93 gave audiences the unique opportunity of facing the horror of 9/11. The key word there is “horror” because this film functions very much like a horror film, which allows people the opportunity to submit themselves to trauma from the safety of a theater seat and face their fears. Doing that represents the beginning of addressing our unresolved feelings about that day and coming to terms with it.

While arranging the film schedule, I deliberately set Osama up next to United 93. This was partly to do with the realities of intolerance directed at Muslim community after the September 11th attack and the ongoing sensitivity about that issue. There are many things interesting and unique about Osama but within the context of this series and coming off of the intensity of United 93, what this film contributes is a sense of empathy for the people of Afghanistan and makes an important differentiation between the majority of peaceful Muslims and a minority of violent extremists.

Restrepo is an extraordinary piece of documentary filmmaking

Taxi to the Dark Side is more deliberate in its theme and tone as it explores what the United States did to the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. With the recent releases of memoirs by former Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, this issue has returned to the talking head TV circuit which gave the film some fortuitous immediacy. But what is most important to take from Taxi the Dark Side, which will haunt this country for some time, is what it reveals about how our response to 9/11 affected us politically and militarily but also morally. After watching the abyss of horrors of United 93 and Osama, that abyss begins to stare back at us in Taxi to the Dark Side.

The Messenger’s story of soldiers returning home from the war confronts the audience with the aftermath of all this and explores how we treat the troops when they get here. Each character of The Messenger has their own issues to deal with, particularly loneliness and isolation. And when viewed after Restrepo and Taxi to the Dark Side, this film takes on added dimensions. But what The Messenger also suggests is the possibility of hope through compassion and love in all of its forms: romantic, familial, platonic, and brotherly.

The last film in the series was Four Lions, which is a comedy but a challenging one. Four Lions bookended this film series with United 93. Where the first film showed us the terror of that day, Four Lions invites us to laugh at it. Although that sounds vulgar, Four Lions picks up the absurdity of all this and plays it for maximum satirical effect. And if the goal of the terrorist is to terrorize—that is, to cause fear—then laughing at them might be the most devastating retaliation of all.

Part of the reason I do this show is that I think movies are important. And not just high class Hollywood Oscar bait or prestigious art films but the cumulative effects of cinema from family films to grindhouse movies. It is important to remember that cinema can have consequences. We know, for example, that Joseph Goebbels used motion pictures as one of the primary tools of the Nazi propaganda campaign, especially in driving and shaping anti-Semitic attitudes that paved the way for the Final Solution. But we can also look at a film like Schindler’s List and appreciate filmmakers exposing the horrors of the Holocaust and coping with its legacy.

Motion pictures cannot change the world. Only people can do that. Film can light the way, showing us the possibilities, the hopes, and the fears. But when the credits are over and the film runs its last real we have to leave the theater seat and reenter the world. What we can hope for in the auditorium is illumination but that’s all for nothing if we forget about that on our trip back up the aisle.

9/11 Film Series: Four Lions

2011-09-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the last film in the 9/11 Film Series: Four Lions, a dark comedy about suicide bombers.

As I designed the 9/11 Film Series, I felt that Four Lions would be an effective bookend to this film series with United 93. As I indicated in my blog entry about United 93, that film views very much like a horror picture, and horror and comedy and like brother and sister in that they often find laughs or scares in fundamentally the same things. A gory horror film like Hostel makes us squirm or scream in terror at the inner functions of the human body but a bawdy comedy like Bridesmaids makes us laugh at virtually the same thing. The horror filmmaker exposes social and individual anxieties and puts the audience through a traumatic experience that ultimately makes the viewer feel better about it. Similarly, the comedian is a social critic who stands before the audience in an accusatory role and exposes the lunacy and hypocrisy around him.

In the context of this film series, United 93 showed us the devastation of terrorism, Osama frightened us with religion inspired oppression, and Taxi to the Dark Side startled us with its depiction of institutionalized torture. Four Lions invites us to laugh at this horror.

That isn't as morbid or crass as it sounds, in part because Four Lions gets its tone right. Although anything can be funny, not everything is funny in every way. The Holocaust does not suggest itself as a comedic topic and there is certainly nothing funny about films like The Reader or Schindler's List. But Life is Beautiful manages to set a comedy in a Nazi death camp and use the humor as a way to cope with the horror. Four Lions does the same with terrorism. The film plays up the absurd and finds laughs in the stupidity of the characters while also nodding at the human loss of the situation.

One of the more curious qualities of Four Lions is its regard for Muslims and Islam. In my blog post for Osama, I made mention of my concern that the 9/11 Film Series not encourage prejudice toward the Muslim community. That was also a concern for this film, but Four Lions makes a few subversive choices that undermine stereotypes. First is the depiction of Omar, played by Riz Ahmed, the leader of the would-be terrorist cell. His home life is very Westernized; he wears western clothing and has a strong marriage and a loving relationship with his son. This comes in opposition to the expectation of a anti-Western, ultra-conservative misogynist. Second is the character of Barry, played by Nigel Lindsay, the most militant of the group, who constantly uses Islam and his identity as a jihadist to justify himself. He is by far the least sympathetic character in the film and his attempts to use Islam to assert his authority come across as shallow and asinine, to say the least. Both of these characters are in contrast to Ahmed, played by Wasim Zakir, Omar's brother and a devout Muslim. Ahmed tells Omar that his plans are not justified and he later invites his brother to come to a study group, an offer that Omar rejects. The point here is clear: neither Omar nor Barry represent Islam or other Muslims. In fact, they are not really interested in Islam at all.

This distinction between Omar and Barry on the one hand and Ahmed on the other takes a final turn in the film's conclusion. In a cross cut sequence, the group of terrorists commit to their final bombing plan while British police arrest Ahmed, which punctuates the absurdity not only of terrorism but also of law enforcement's response to it. And in the final coda, Ahmed is shown being interrogated by intelligence officers, leaving viewers with a final impression of sympathy for the one character in the film who was actually a Muslim in word and deed.

What Four Lions provides, both on its own but especially in the context of this film series, is an opportunity for an exasperated release both by the audience and by the filmmaker. The picture uses comedy to give us a way to cope with a subject that is fundamentally tragic. If the goal of the terrorist is to terrorize—that is, to cause fear—then laughing at them might be the most devastating retaliation of all.

Recommended Viewing:

Also - Check out this video of Four Lions director Chris Morris introducing the film and this particularly astute review of Four Lions by film critic Mark Kermode.

9/11 Film Series: The Messenger

2011-09-15T21:45:00.000-07:00

The 9/11 Film Series continued this evening with The Messenger, which tells the story of soldiers on a Casualty Notification Team.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, 9/11 is generally thought of as a unique and unprecedented event that disrupted and fundamentally changed the world. We can take that assumption as at least partially true, in that the events of 9/11 reshaped the way Americans view themselves and the world, and that turned into an imperative to rid the world of so-called "evil doers." From there America marched into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and along the way disrupted our own identity as absolute good fighting absolute evil. In the wake of the the destruction wrought upon us, as dramatized in United 93, and later having to face the results of the destruction we wrought in response, as documented in Restrepo and Taxi to the Dark Side, the culture and the individuals in it are placed in a vulnerable and uncertain place in which we have to redefine who we are and what we are doing.

And it is at this point in the 9/11 Film Series that we view This Messenger. This film continues the search for meaning in the post-9/11 (and post-Abu Ghraib) era and it dramatizes that search in the lives of the soldiers on a Casualty Notification Team and a widow of a recent casualty in the war. In The Messenger, that search is defined by the characters' interactions with each other and their gradual shift from isolation to companionship.

The Messenger uses a very realistic approach to its film making. Director Oren Moverman uses a lot of hand held cinematography, natural lighting, long cuts, and minimal music score. Yet, this is clearly a carefully assembled film. Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster's characters are staged in separate shots or in opposing parts of the frame but gradually move together throughout the course of the film as their bond strengthens. The film uses a similar approach in the relationship between Foster and Samantha Morton's characters, as Foster starts out looking at her from a distance and gradually integrates himself into her life. That shift in frame is central to the film's underlying theme.

Although there are a number of terrific performances in The Messenger, it is in Ben Foster's role that the film dramatizes its central issue: what is a soldier to do when the fighting is over? Foster plays his role wonderfully; in the first act of the story his character is downright frightening. He is on a slow boil and the character's rage is palpable Foster's performance.

But over the course of The Messenger, Foster's character is changed and softened by the connections he establishes with Harrelson and Morton's characters and the pain he witnesses in his casualty notifications. Receiving compassion and engaging in it create the opportunity for all three of the lead characters to confront their losses and eventually come to some new level of consciousness. This development is illustrated in a subtle but cleverly placed image near the film's finale. Harrelson and Foster sit on a couch as Foster recounts his war experience while a television set across from them displays a tornado wiping out a group of homes. There are a number of ways to interpret that metaphor, but I'll suggest that this natural catastrophe mirrors what has happened to Foster's soul. His confession of survivor's guilt is in part due to living through a large destructive event whose causes and effects are larger than any one human being's ability to grasp.

Without belaboring the point or sulking in melodrama, The Messenger explores the experience of soldiers returning from the war and more broadly asks what it means to live in the post-9/11 period. In the context of this film series, coming after after Restrepo and Taxi to the Dark Side, this film takes on added dimensions. But what The Messenger ultimately suggests is the possibility of hope through compassion and through love in all of its forms: romantic, platonic, familial, and brotherly.

Recommended Viewing:

9/11 Film Series: Taxi to the Dark Side

2011-09-14T21:45:00.000-07:00

Tonight's installment of the 9/11 Film Series was Taxi to the Dark Side, a documentary about the use of enhanced interrogation techniques by the United States.

I selected and organized the films in this series based on three questions: What happened on 9/11? What did we do in response? And what did that response do to us? This series began with the terror of the 9/11 attack as recreated in United 93 and the series continued with Osama, which dramatized the oppression of Afghanistan’s population by the Taliban. The documentary Restrepo focused on American soldiers in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. Within the design of this series, that film begins to answer the second question—What did we do?—as the film documents soldiers engaging in firefights with the Taliban and their allies but also interacting with the local Afghan elders. Taxi to the Dark Side addresses that issue as well but it also starts to broach the final question: What did our response do to us?

In Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, "He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee." This could very well be the thesis of the film.

There is a key image presented early on in Taxi to the Dark Side that sets up everything that that is to follow. The voice over explains that Abu Ghraib prison was notorious under Saddam Hussein's regime as a place for torture and the disposal of political enemies. This information is presented simultaneously with the image of a mural inside the prison depicting Saddam. The former Iraqi leader's face has been scratched off the wall and all that remains is his general visage. The mural looks very much like the stand-ups of famous characters often seen at theme parks and tourist traps, in which the head has been cut out and visitors stick their own faces inside for a photo. Later, as Taxi to the Dark Side features pictures of abused prisoners and American soldiers posing with them as though in a petting zoo or a frat party, the parallel is clear. Americans entered an atmosphere of abuse and became the new face of oppression.

Taxi the Dark Side establishes a connection between the brutality in these prisons and the action-adventure stories of 24 and similar programs. Blaming the media is an easy excuse and it is ridiculous to suggest that the adventures of Jack Bauer directly or unilaterally led to the activities at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. But the repetition of images, namely the ticking bomb scenario and the use of pain to extract information, reinforced the idea that torture was in some way excusable or acceptable if the ends justified the means. This figures into the broader way 9/11 has been conceived and characterized in the popular imagination.

9/11 is generally viewed a freak incident without context or precedent, an attack on an innocent America by a group of evil thugs. Most film adaptations of the attack hold up this image, at least partly. In United 93, the passengers aboard the flight are innocents who act heroically in the face of fear. Similarly, Osama characterizes the Taliban as irredeemably corrupt. While this may be true, this characterization sets up a good and evil binary. And that binary grants America and our allies the moral high ground and a monopoly on goodness.

With the trauma of 9/11 still aching in our hearts and operating under the supposition of inherent virtue, America marched blindly toward a moral precipice. As one of the guards notes in the documentary, they were encouraged to view the prisoners as less than human. And when the prisoners were believed to be evil, inhuman terrorists who were (in the minds of the guards and the American public) at least tangentially connected to 9/11, it did not matter what was done to them. In this situation, good people are capable of the greatest evil because their moral compass is turned off.

What is probably most important to take from Taxi the Dark Side, which will haunt this country for some time, is what it reveals about how our response to 9/11 affected us politically and militarily but also morally. After watching the abyss of horrors of United 93 and Osama, that abyss begins to stare back at us in Taxi the Dark Side.

Recommended Viewing:

9/11 Film Series: Restrepo

2011-09-13T21:45:00.000-07:00

Tonight's installment of the 9/11 Film Series was Restrepo, a documentary about soldiers stationed in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan.

Restrepo was co-directed by Sebastian Junger and Tim Heatherington. Junger is a correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine and he collected his observations in the book War, which was released simultaneously with this film. Heatherington was a cinematographer and photojournalist and he had cooperated with Junger on a forthcoming book called Infidel. Sadly, Tim Heatherington was recently killed while reporting on the recent uprising in Libya.

In documentary filmmaking, the style is often described in one of two ways: objective and subjective. Subjective documentaries are told from a clear point of view and often employ narration and other techniques to present the subject from a specific perspective. The films of Michael Moore such as Sicko and Roger and Me are popular examples of subjective documentaries. These are pictures with a clear thesis that is usually stated early on in the picture.

Objective documentaries are generally told with a more ambiguous perspective. They often employ a cinema verite style, presenting the subject with a minimal amount of editorial intrusion. Vernon, Florida, directed by Errol Morris, and Hearts and Minds, directed by Peter Davis, are examples. Like subjective documentaries, these films do seek to present a truth about their subject but the truth of an objective documentary film tends to unfold over the course of the film’s running time; the truth or message of an objective documentary is found in the sum of its parts rather than in a specific thesis elucidated in the opening.

Restrepo is told in an objective documentary style. And like many films that use this approach, Restrepo can be confusing or overwhelming. Much of today's cinema--both dramatic and documentary--mico-manage the viewer's experience with voice overs that tells us exactly how to think and music cues and editing choices that tell us how to feel. The absence of that kind of direction can be challenging to an audience that is accustomed to it. This is a film that requires a viewer to engage with the piece, to think about the content and how images and sounds are juxtaposed together.

Restrepo is bookended by testimonies of the soldiers in charge at the post. In the pre-title sequence, Captain Dan Kearney admits that he did not do any research on the Korengal Valley before arriving there but that he was determined to go into the area and, in his words, "fix it." In the film's final sequence, as the soldier's vacate the valley, First Sergeant LaMonta Caldwell says "We've done our job. We did what we were supposed to be doing. And we're out of here." It is in the juxtaposition of those statements with what happens in between them that Restrepo is most revealing.

War is often described as long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of terror. That cliche fits the portrayal of war in Restrepo; although the film is not boring it does have a cyclical construction. The middle of the film is a repetition of patrols and occasional firefights, the establishment and reinforcement of the operating post, and the meetings with the Afghan elders. What is most apparent by the end is that, despite the effort, the sacrifice, and the casualties, nothing has been accomplished. That point is punctuated by the text displayed before the end credits, informing the viewer that the Korengal Valley was later abandoned by the United States military.

Restrepo was released in 2010, which is curious because that year had one of the highest casualty rates for US forces in Afghanistan since we entered the country after the 9/11 attack but the year 2010 also featured the least amount of coverage of the war from the mainstream press. And, among the film's other attributes, that is part of what makes Restrepo extraordinary and exceptional. Despite all of the time and resources dedicated to Afghanistan and in spite of the extent to which daily life around the world is documented and disseminated, this film is one of the only significant pieces of documentary cinema to come out of the conflict.

Recommended Viewing:

9/11 Film Series: Osama

2011-09-12T21:45:00.000-07:00

The 9/11 Film Series continued tonight with Osama.

Osama was released in 2003 and it was the first Afghani film to be released after the fall of the Taliban. The actors were not professional performers and a lot of them lived in the city of Kabul, where Osama was filmed. And since it was shot in 2002 the film literally captured life in Afghanistan just after the Taliban had vacated the premises. This gives the film a great deal of authenticity and authority.

This film series was based on three questions: What happened on 9/11? What did we do in response? And what did our response do to us? United 93 began this series by providing a vision of the events of September 11th, 2001 and allowing us the opportunity to re-experience the fear and confusion of that day. I selected Osama as the follow up to that film because I see it as an important companion piece.

In the past few days I’ve heard a lot of people saying things like “We will never forget” about the events of September 11th, 2001. While remembering is important, what we remember and how we remember are also important. In the book 9/11: The Culture of Commemoration, David Simpson writes that the September 11th attack “has been widely presented as an interruption of the deep rhythms of cultural time, a cataclysm simply erasing what was there rather than evolving from anything already in place, and threatening a yet more monstrous future. It appeared as an unforeseen eruption across the path of a history commonly deemed rooted in a complacent steady-state progressivism.” To put that more simply, what Simpson means is that in most people’s minds, 9/11 does not have a precedent or a context. It is viewed as a freak event.

When we think of 9/11 we also tend to imagine it as an American event. That’s understandable since it did after all take place on American soil and most of the victims were American citizens. And as a result of that perception, 9/11 is understood not only as an attack on New York and DC but as an attack on all of us. And in the weeks and months that followed 9/11 there was a terrific sense of unity among the American people. However, that unity was limited. There was also a steep rise in hate crimes and harassment of the Muslim community or of people who fit some kind of general, broad profile.

When a group of people are attacked, they tend to circle the wagons and everyone inside the circle is considered an ally, no matter what divisions and rivalries existed previously, and those outside the circle are viewed with suspicion if not outright antagonism. That has serious consequences because the wartime mentality makes empathy for those outside of our circle increasingly difficult. After 9/11, this dualistic mind set took hold among the general American public who were traumatized by the attack but it also threatens to characterize the Muslim community if they feel persecuted and ostracized. And in that case dialogue goes down and tension goes up. This is where a film like Osama becomes so important.

I heard a wonderful quote from (of all sources) last summer’s action movie Captain America in which Stanley Tucci’s character says, “People forget the first country the Nazi’s invaded was their own.” I think that’s a great phrase because it makes a distinction between Nazism, which is a specific ideology and political movement, and the German people.

Similarly, we could say that the first people attacked by groups such as Al Qaeda and the Taliban were other Muslims. And if we think of 9/11 not just as an American event or as a historical aberration but as an outgrowth of ongoing and shared history between cultures, we find that the victims and survivors of Osama aren’t that different from the victims and survivors of United 93. And in that case maybe the first victims of 9/11 were not in New York but in Kabul.

Recommended Viewing

9/11 Film Series: United 93

2011-09-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

Tonight began the 9/11 Film Series on the Winona State University campus with a screening of United 93.

United 93 is not the only film dramatization about the attack. In fact, there have been at least nine films dramatizing the events of September 11th and of those, four have focused on the events aboard United Airlines Flight 93. Yet, United 93 is distinct among them. Although it is a dramatization, the film has a great deal of detail that makes it a mergence of dramatic and documentary filmmaking.

First, the cast includes a number of real-life participants playing themselves. Ben Sliney, the FAA's National Operations Manager, plays himself as do other FAA officials. Several civilian air traffic controllers in the Newark control tower also play themselves and the pilots and stewardesses aboard Flight 93 are played by real life airline pilots and flight attendants. In the scenes at the Northeast Air Defense Command Center, most of the military personnel are played by real-life military air traffic controllers, including Major James Fox who was in the command center on September 11th.

Second, because a few years passed between the event and the making of United 93, the filmmakers were able to reference the 9/11 Commission Report as well as other reporting on the event to recreate the details as fully as possible. This film also incorporates news footage from that day.

Lastly, the film was made in cooperation with the surviving family members of those aboard Flight 93 who were able to provide personal details about the passengers. In fact, proceeds from United 93's theatrical run were donated to funding a memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

United 93 was released in 2006 after some controversy. A few theaters pulled the trailer after complaints and production of the film was criticized for fear that it would exploit the tragedy. There is an important point to be taken from that criticism; filmmakers don’t want to be perceived as ambulance chasers.

However, two questions should be asked of the “it’s too soon” criticism:

What are we waiting for?
When will it be time to make films about this?

It would seem that we are waiting for a point of perspective from which we can say something interesting and relevant about the attack. The passage of time cools the passions both for the filmmaker and for the audience and allows the emotional and intellectual space for a more reasoned perception on the events, so waiting to make a film is reasonable.

But the real issue is not so much time as it is substance. Filmmakers must have a vision of what they wish to accomplish and the film ought to be evaluated on the quality and substance of that vision and how well it is achieved on screen.

This raises two additional points. First is how United 93 functions for the viewer. Although it may seem like a strange comparison, United 93 plays very much like a horror film. Just like a ghost story or a slasher film, United 93 puts the audience through a controlled trauma. By watching this film we are able to re-experience the fear of that moment and study both the attack and our reactions to it. And by (re)experiencing the awfulness from the safety of a theater seat, we are given an opportunity to come to grips with what happened and start to deal with it.

This leads to my second point, which is that it is important for filmmakers and other artists to engage with 9/11. There is an analogy to be made between what happened to the culture on September 11, 2001 and what happens to an individual after a traumatic event. If the anxieties and fears resulting from the trauma are not dealt with, they are likely to manifest themselves in other ways, possibly in negative or self-destructive forms. If these unresolved feelings are left unchecked it is quite possible that they form new prejudices or amplify existing ones, as evidenced by the intolerance faced by the Muslim community, or lead to a derailment of our critical faculties, as evidenced by the mainstream media’s compliance with the invasion of Iraq. When films, of whatever genre or style, deal honestly for these themes and issues, they offer the possibility—not the promise but the possibility—of moving the viewers toward an understanding of what 9/11 means.

There are two dominant themes in United 93 that suggest the film's take on 9/11. The first is the subversion of a complex system (the aviation system) by the actions of the terrorists, the establishment's inability to cope with that subversion, and the initiative of a few individuals who take matters into their own hands in order to solve the problem. In that, United 93 is a very American story and the picture reaffirms the values of independence, sacrifice, and individuality that are deeply rooted in American history.

The other dominant theme of United 93 is the contrast of the ancient with the modern. Prayers are uttered throughout the film both by the terrorists and by the passengers while technology transmits final messages to loved ones. Airliners, which represent the conquest of man's technology over the vastness of geography, are used as a weapon of mass death. The terrorists use crude edged weapons to take over a complex piece of transportation and the passengers similarly use brute force in their revolt. One of the final images of United 93 is a frantic struggle by various pairs of hands for control of the wheel of the airplane. That juxtaposition of imagery suggests that 9/11 represented a clash of the ancient and the modern and the age that the attack ushered in would be defined by conflicts over whether ancient or modern hands would steer humanity into the future.

United 93 is being presented as a part of a series. But this picture is an important first step in that it reminds us of the fear and chaos of that day and provides a metaphor for the larger conflict that would define the decade to come.

Recommended Viewing:

9/11 Film Series: Sept. 11 - 16th

2011-08-24T14:16:00.000-07:00

This fall is the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attack. With that in mind, a 9-11 Film Series will be screened on the Winona State University campus from September 11th - 16th.

All screenings are FREE and open the public. Films will be shown at 7pm in the Science Lab Center Auditorium (room 120, located between Pasteur and Stark Halls) on the Winona State campus.

The films included in the series were selected and assembled based on three questions: What happened on 9/11? What did we do in response? And what did that response do to us? The goal of these screenings is not to provide simplistic answers to these questions, but to use cinema as a platform from which to discuss how we conceive and understand the attack, our resulting attitudes and actions, and ultimately pry at the broader question: what does 9/11 mean? These are challenging questions with possibly even more challenging answers.

FILM SCHEDULE:
Sunday, September 11th: United 93
Directed by Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum), this intense dramatization of the 9/11 attack focuses on the events aboard United Airlines flight 93. The film was named among the best pictures of 2006 by several critics and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture. MPAA rating: R. 111 minutes.

Monday, September 12th: Osama
An Afghani film about a girl and her family living under the Taliban. This was the first Afghani film to be made after the Taliban were removed from power and it won the Best Foreign Language Film award at the 2004 Golden Globes. MPAA rating: PG-13. 83 minutes.

Tuesday, September 13th: Restrepo
A documentary film about American soldiers stationed in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. MPAA rating: R. 93 minutes.

Wednesday, September 14th: Taxi to the Dark Side
Called "one of the essential documentaries of the ongoing war" by The New Yorker, this film examines the enhanced interrogation techniques used by the United States in the War on Terror. The film won an Oscar and an Emmy for Best Documentary. MPAA rating: R. 106 minutes.

Thursday, September 15th: The Messenge
A wounded soldier (Ben Foster) is assigned to a Casualty Notification Team and partnered with an experienced soldier (Woody Harrelson) who instructs him on the procedures of his job. Coming Home for the September 11th generation. Harrelson was nominated for an Oscar for his performance. MPAA rating: R. 113 minutes.

Friday, September 16th: Four Lions
Compared by critics to Duck Soup and Dr. Strangelove, this dark comedy follows a group of bumbling terrorists who attempt to fulfill their dreams of martyrdom but constantly foil themselves due to their own stupidity. Fans of Life of Brian, The Daily Show, and Good Morning, Vietnam shouldn't miss it. MPAA rating: R. 97 minutes.

A webpage including links and trailers for the films can be found here.
There is also a Facebook event page here.

The 9-11 Film Series is sponsored by Sounds of Cinema, Winona State University's English Department, Communication Studies Department, Department of Housing and Residence Life, Department of Theater and Dance, Office of Inclusion and Diversity, Office of Student Life and Development, Philosophy Department, University Programming Activities Committee, Vittorio Colaizzi, Anne Plummer, and Jim Williams.

Go Ape on Sounds of Cinema

2011-08-14T11:50:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, August 14th, Sounds of Cinema will dedicate an entire episode to The Planet of the Apes series. I will take a look at all of the films in the series, from the 1968 original to 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The episode will also feature an interview with Eric Greene, the author of Planet of the Apes as American Myth: Race, Politics and Popular Culture.

Melissa Harris-Perry on 'The Help'

2011-08-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

In this clip from The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Melissa Harris-Perry discusses her objections to the new film, The Help. Her criticism highlights the perils of adapting history to the movie screen and the ongoing problems of representations of African American women in Hollywood films.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Final Thought on the Harry Potter Series

2011-07-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

On today’s show I reviewed all the Harry Potter films, from The Sorcerer's Stone to The Deathly Hallows. Although individual films have their flaws, this series is impressive enough and (perhaps more importantly) beloved by so many, that it has earned a place next to Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and Star Trek among the most enduring film series' of all time. It is safe to say that years from now these films and the books that inspired them will be shared by parents with their children, who are likely to be just as enthusiastic about this series as those who first read them, and that multi-generational appeal speaks to the effectiveness of the stories and the characters of Harry Potter.

Even though we live in a time when the American film market is flooded with science fiction and fantasy films, the Harry Potter films are unique because of their commitment to story. Re-screening and reviewing all the films in anticipation of the final installment was a surprisingly emotional experience in the same way that watching a student graduate from high school or college tugs at the heart strings. Yes, these stories feature characters who fly on broomsticks and use wands to cast magical spells, but those who dismiss the stories on those grounds are being facile. The story of Harry Potter and his friends is really a story about growing up, losing innocence, and facing fears and the films dealt with that (especially in The Goblet of Fire and The Order of the Phoenix) much better than a lot of supposedly serious, Oscar baiting issue pictures.

Ultimately, the most important lesson to take from the series is this: the Harry Potter films were big Hollywood blockbusters that made lots of money. And yet, these were movies about stories, characters, and ideas. The Harry Potter films had something to say and mostly said it intelligently and with great artistry. In the end, this series is one of the best examples of why fantasy is a legitimate film making and storytelling form and it proves that big budget mainstream films can do more than just sell toys.

Harry Potter on Sounds of Cinema

2011-07-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

On July 24th, tune in for a special Harry Potter edition of Sounds of Cinema. During the course of the show I will take a look at the entire Harry Potter film series and include excerpts for the scores.

Controversial Films 2011

2011-07-03T07:52:00.000-07:00

Today's episode of Sounds of Cinema was the annual Independence Day program in which I celebrate free speech by taking a look at banned, censored, and controversial films. Note that this is not intended to be a complete list of controversial films, just a selection of noteworthy pictures that have rattled the cage. For more, see the links at the bottom and last year's blog post on controversial cinema.

MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)
Dir. John Schlesinger

Midnight Cowboy was released in 1969, when the MPAA ratings system had just been imposed, and the film was given an X-rating, meaning that no one under the age of 17 could see it. Midnight Cowboy became the first and only X-rated film to win an Oscar for Best Picture although years later that rating was reduced to an R. The reasons for that reduction appear to be business related. When the adult entertainment industry adopted the XXX rating for their own films, the hardcore rating and the MPAA’s X-rating became indistinguishable in the mind of the public. Many theaters, especially national chains, cannot or will not show X-rated films and many newspapers and television stations will not carry advertising for them. The fact that Midnight Cowboy’s rating was changed from an X to an R without any changes to the film’s content was a sign of the arbitrary nature of the ratings process, a charge that has bedeviled the MPAA’s ratings board ever since.

CALIGULA (1979)
Dir. Tinto Brass

Caligula is one of those films in which the story of its production is as twisted as the film itself. An unfamiliar viewer might assume that Caligula is fashioned as a classic Hollywood historical epic like Ben-Hur or Spartacus and in a way that isn’t far off. Its sets and design do show a comparable level of scope and production value, the screenplay was written by esteemed author Gore Vidal, and the picture stars an impressive cast including Malcolm McDowell, Peter O’Toole, and Helen Mirren. But behind the camera was producer Bob Guccione, who was also the owner and publisher of Penthouse magazine. Guccione funded the film on the condition that it include footage of hardcore pornography. Some of the actors insist that they had no idea that the hardcore scenes were going to be included and Vidal sued to have his name taken off the picture.

Caligula was savaged by critics on its release, with Variety magazine calling it a “moral holocaust.” That over the top assessment isn’t far off. The film is a messy amalgamation of Cleopatra and Behind the Green Door. Much of the hardcore footage was obviously shot separately and does not match when it is intercut with the other footage. The R-rated cut isn’t much better as a lot of the cinematography and blocking are clumsy and many scenes don’t cut together in any kind of intelligible way. However, there is a legacy to Caligula that is important. Caligula was an attempt to merge pornography with mainstream cinema, which in more recent years has become increasingly common with films like Pirates, The Brown Bunny, and Antichrist. And the film’s ambitions of a very violent and sexually charged historical epic later came to successful fruition on HBO’s dramatic series Rome.

ANTICHRIST (2009)
Dir. Lars von Trier

Director Lars von Trier has cultivated a public image as one of the premier provocateur filmmakers which is actually kind of extraordinary considering the extent to which shock and controversy are used to sell cinema and other media. But the difference between von Trier and many other intentionally incendiary filmmakers is that von Trier’s filmmaking skill is extraordinary and his films aspire to big ideas. Antichrist deals with grief, guilt, and misogyny in the story of a couple mourning the death of their son. When the couple retreats to a cabin, their grief manifests itself sexually and violently, as the couple turns on each other.

Filled with extremely graphic and esoteric imagery, Antichrist caused an uproar when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009. Several people fainted during the screening due to the film’s violence and the Cannes Ecumenical Jury, which hands out prizes to films that celebrate humanist and spiritual values, gave Antichrist an anti-award on the accusation that the film was misogynist. But the film ended up getting nominated for the Palme d'Or award and Charlotte Gainsbourg won the Cannes best actress award. When it was released, Antichrist polarized critics. Christopher Kelly of the Dallas Morning News called the film “an unrelenting orgy of graphic sex, violence and cynicism that also manages to be wildly pretentious.” But at Empire Online, Kim Newman wrote, “Antichrist delivers enough beauty, terror and wonder to qualify as the strangest and most original horror movie of the year.”

BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE (2002)
Dir. Michael Moore

Michael Moore made a splash with his first documentary film Roger and Me but he became a household name after the release of Bowling for Columbine. The documentary is often referred to as an anti-gun picture, but that isn’t really accurate. Instead, Moore uses the 1999 Columbine High School shooting and the media frenzy around it as a prism through which to examine America’s disproportionally high murder rate and make broad connections between the tragedy in Littleton, Colorado and American foreign policy.

Bowling for Columbine was hailed by critics but it was attacked, especially by conservatives, with accusations that Moore distorted his facts through selective editing and ambush interviews. However, the most controversial bit of Bowling for Columbine is not in the film. When Moore won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, he gave a scathing speech in which he called out President George W. Bush and protested the invasion of Iraq. It was the most provocative Oscar speech since Marlon Brando refused his award for The Godfather and it effectively set in motion the publicity for Moore’s next film, Fahrenheit 9/11.

BRAZIL (1985)
Dir. Terry Gilliam

Brazil is a dystopian fantasy picture about a future in which bureaucracy has run amok. There is nothing actually offensive in the picture but controversy erupted between director Terry Gilliam and then head of Universal Pictures Sid Sheinberg. Gilliam completed the film, running 132 minutes, but Sheinberg deemed it too long and too confusing for audiences and blocked the picture from being released. When Gilliam refused to make changes, Universal attempted to take the film away from the director and created its own ninety-four minute cut, known as the “Love Conquers All” version. In an attempt to keep control of his film, Gilliam made the dispute public by taking out a full page ad in Variety magazine asking Sheinberg to release the film. This did little to improve his relationship with Sheinberg but it did make critics and the public curious about Brazil and cast the narrative in the press of an independent artist struggling against an oppressive studio system. The final stroke came when Gilliam began setting up clandestine screenings of the film on college campuses, which he wasn’t supposed to do. Brazil was eventually screened for the Los Angeles film critics, who awarded it the Best Picture of the Year award, at which point Sheinberg gave up on trying to recut it and released Gilliam’s version. Later critical judgments of Brazil were mixed. The LA film critics were accused of siding with Gilliam on his dispute with the studio and ignoring the actual shortcomings of the film. In retrospect, Brazil is an interesting but flawed take on government, bureaucracy, and identity but the controversy around it is fittingly consistent with its themes.

LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972)
Dir. Wes Craven

Last House on the Left was the first directorial feature for Wes Craven, who went on to direct genre classics like The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream. A loose adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring, Last House on the Left tells the story of two teenage girls who are tortured and killed by a group of criminals. The killers inadvertently take shelter at the home of one of the victims and when the parents discover what has happened they take bloody revenge.

Last House on the Left is a very nasty and difficult film. Even now, the torture and murder of the young women is still very difficult to watch but in 1972 very few films had ever portrayed violence this way and Last House caused a huge sensation. Allegedly, irate viewers at one screening attempted to break into the projection booth to destroy the film. At the time of the film’s release it was primarily shown in independent theatres and cinema owners made their own edits to the print, excising some of the grislier bits. When the film was being a restored, a complete print could not be found and various copies of Last House on the Left had to be spliced together in order to produce a complete version.

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
Dir. Johnathan Demme

Although The Silence of the Lambs was a critical and commercial success, the film angered the gay, lesbian, and transgender community. It was argued that the film’s serial killer, Buffalo Bill, was a continuation of the violent and predatory stereotypes of the GLBT community that Hollywood had relied upon over the years. Actor Ted Levine, who played Buffalo Bill, has disputed that. In the documentary “Inside the Labyrinth” on The Silence of the Lambs DVD, Levine argues that the character was a homophobic heterosexual whose identity was malformed due to childhood abuse. This reasoning is echoed in the film by several of the characters who point out that there is no link between transsexualism and violence. However, GLBT organizations held protests at theaters showing Silence of the Lambs and at the Oscar ceremony where the film won Best Picture. Perhaps as a result of this reaction to the film, director Jonathan Demme’s next project was the AIDS drama Philadelphia.

SONG OF THE SOUTH (1946)
Dir. Harve Foster & Wilfred Jackson

Song of the South was Disney’s adaptation of Joel Chandler Harris’ “Uncle Remus” stories. Taking place in Georgia during the Reconstruction-era, Uncle Remus (James Baskett) tells folk tales to young Johnny (Bobby Driscoll) to impart important life lessons to the boy.

Originally released in 1946, Song of the South was considered offensive for its white-washing of the Jim Crowe era and for its reliance upon racial stereotypes. With each rerelease, the film’s treatment of race became increasingly anachronistic and after a brief theatrical release in 1986 Disney announced that it had retired the picture and had no plans to rerelease it in theaters or home video. Disney’s decision to withhold Song of the South makes sense from a marketing standpoint and from a cultural sensitivity perspective as well.

However, Song of the South is a technically and historically significant piece of filmmaking. It mixes live action with hand-drawn animation almost two decades before Mary Poppins and the film won a pair of Oscars including Best Original Song for “Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah,” which is now the theme song to the Splash Mountain ride at Disneyland. Indicative of the problems of this film was the honorary acting Oscar given to James Baskett. At this time segregation was still very much a part of everyday life in America, and the Academy Awards were no exception, hence the “honorary,” separate-but-equal acting award given to Baskett. (The “official” Best Actor Oscar was given to Ronald Colman for A Double Life.)

Despite the controversy, Song of the South is an important film both for American cinema and for our nation’s racial history. Disney’s public relations aside, the censorship of Song of the South raises two key questions: First, what, if anything, is gained by removing the film from circulation? And second, why has this film been withdrawn but Gone With the Wind is considered beloved and untouchable?

SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAADASSSSS SONG (1971)
Dr. Melvin Van Peebles

Melvin Van Peebles wrote, directed, and stared in this film about an African American man who witnesses an act of police brutality, kills the police officers involved, and then goes on the run from the law. The film opens with a dedication to "all the Brothers and Sisters who have had enough of the Man" and the picture is intended to provoke a revolutionary consciousness in the viewer. This aspect was seized upon by the Black Panthers who used it as a recruiting film but Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song was also criticized for reinforcing negative stereotypes and encouraging militancy. But most controversial was a prologue sequence in which a juvenile Sweetback, played by the underage son of the director, engaged in a simulated sex scene.

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song is an important film. It was a box office triumph not only for African American cinema but for independent filmmakers of any background. The film kicked off the blaxploitation trend of the 1970s that included pictures like Shaft, Foxy Brown, and Super Fly and the band Earth, Wind & Fire, who provided the soundtrack, went on to major mainstream success. However, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song is difficult to watch. It was made on the cheap by people who didn’t entirely know what they were doing, which gives it a gritty authenticity but the plot, cinematography, and editing make the film nearly incomprehensible and it has not aged very gracefully. The film was a product of a specific place and time and the meanings and significance of the film are hard to grasp now. Like Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left, this is a film whose primary value now is as a cinematic artifact.

THE MESSAGE (aka MOHAMMAD, MESSENGER OF GOD) (1977)
Dir. Moustapha Akkad

The Message tells the story Mohammad and the rise of Islam, culminating in the Prophet and his followers securing Mecca as a Muslim holy site. Telling a cinematic story about Mohammad is uniquely difficult because Islam forbids depictions of the prophet and his immediate family. The filmmakers solved this by telling the story through Mohammad's uncle Hamza (Anthony Quinn) and his adopted son Zayd (Damien Thomas). At other moments, Mohammad’s presence is insinuated off screen or represented in the first person as through Mohammad were the camera. In addition, the script was written and revised to meet the approval of Islamic religious leaders.

Despite the attempt to respect the beliefs and traditions of Islam, misinformed word spread that the film was going to depict Mohammad on screen and commit other offenses against the religion. While it was in production, filming had to be relocated several times due to threats and protests. Eventually the film was sponsored by Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi and Libyan soldiers were used as extras in the film.

At the time of its original release, The Message was banned from some Middle-Eastern countries because religious leaders didn't like the idea of the story of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad as a motion picture. And in March 1977 three buildings and over 100 people were held hostage in Washington, D.C. by a group of Muslim gunmen, who demanded, among other things, that The Message be banned from U.S. theaters for being sacrilegious. Although the film was not banned, theaters did pull the film and future screenings were limited due to fears of further violence.

LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST (1988)
Dir. Martin Scorsese

Adapted from the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ is a hypothetical story about Jesus Christ in which he is tempted with the option of not having to die on the cross. The story depicts Christ as a passionate man who has desires but has to abstain from indulging them in order to fulfill his calling. The book had been highly controversial, with Kazantzakis nearly excommunicated from the Greek Orthodox Church.

With backing by Paramount, Martin Scorsese began production on the film Last Temptation of Christ in 1983 with a large budget. But when word spread among Christian conservatives that Scorsese was making the film, Paramount and prominent theater chains were swamped with complaints and the film was canceled while in production. Scorsese took the project to Universal and in 1987 he completed the film on a much smaller budget. Last Temptation of Christ was made and released in spite of an unprecedented level of protest that hasn’t been seen at any film since. After its theatrical release, the film was not available at major retailers like Wal-Mart or rental chains like Blockbuster.

LIFE OF BRIAN (1979)
Dir. Terry Jones

Monty Python consistently made religion a target of their features and skits, but the film Life of Brian, which satires the Gospels through a man who is mistaken to be the Messiah, faced protests and was censored in Britain. The film was banned by several town councils and organizations, and an effort was made to re-rate it so that audiences would be limited. Life of Brian was also banned for periods of time in Ireland, Norway, and Italy. Catholic groups condemned the film and suggested it was a sin to view it.

Defending the film, Monty Python member Michael Palin has said that the film is not blasphemous, as it does not lampoon actual religious figures, but it is heretical because it does criticize the use and abuse of religious authority by various groups.

SOURCES

Alternative Reel: Top 10 Banned Films of the 20th Century
AMC Filmsite: Most Controversial Films of All Time by Tim Durks
The Battle for Brazil: A Video History (DVD)
Business Week: Banned Films from Around the World
critical-film.com: The Complete Video Nasties List
Entertainment Weekly: 25 Most Controversial Films of All Time
Forbidden Footage: Last House on the Left (DVD)
The Guardian: Torture, necrophilia, and a very naughty boy: the films that shocked us
Inside the Labyrinth: The Making of The Silence of the Lambs (DVD)
It's Only a Movie: The Making of Last House on the Left (DVD)
Michael Moore Hates America (DVD)
Movies That Shook the World: The Last Temptation of Christ (TV)
Premiere: The 25 Most Dangerous Movies Ever Made
Sky Movies: 50 Most Controversial Films
The Story of Brian (DVD)
This Film is Not Yet Rated (DVD)
Time Out New York: The 25 Most Controversial Films of All Time
Wikipedia: List of banned films
Yahoo Movies: 5 Most Controversial Films of the Decade

See Fish Frye on their Freedom Tour

2011-06-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

Fish Frye, the official band of Sounds of Cinema, will be playing several shows over the Independence Day weekend. Check them out at:

The Trempealeau Hotel
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Time: 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Ages: All Ages

Wellington's Backwater Brewery Co.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Time: 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm
Ages: 21 and Up

Milton Fourth of July Celebration
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Time: 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Ages: All Ages

All shows are free of cover charges. Find out more about the band here.

Celebrate Free Speech with Sounds of Cinema

2011-06-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

Tune into Sounds of Cinema this Independence Day weekend. I'll be celebrating the First Amendment and freedom of speech by examining films that have been censored, banned, or were controversial. I've been doing this theme for the past few July 4th weekends, but this year's episode is full of all new material.

Mutant Pride: Racial Metaphors in 'X-Men: First Class'

2011-06-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

There has been a quiet grumbling over the new comic book film X-Men: First Class by some commentators and critics. Specifically, the film has been criticized for taking place in 1962, in the midst of the civil rights movement, and yet there is no overt acknowledgement in the film of the racial issues of the period. According to this argument, First Class white-washes history and distorts our understanding of the past. I take issue with this criticism. Although First Class does have its flaws, these critics are largely missing the point.

Primary to the argument against First Class is that the film ignores the political realities of the early 1960s by error of omission and as a result whatever the film has to say about race cannot be taken seriously. In an op-ed in The New York Times, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes that First Class “appeals to an insidious suspension of disbelief; the heroic mutants of America, bravely opposing bigotry and fear, are revealed as not so much a spectrum of humankind, but as Eagle Scouts from Mayfield. Thus, ‘First Class’ proves itself not merely an incredible film, but an incredible work of American historical fiction.” From a storytelling point of view, this argument presumes that First Class is historical fiction, and that the story is meant to take place in a literal historical context. This presumption is short sighted. Stories create their own world in which people talk and interact in ways that adhere to the style employed by the storyteller and the internal logic of the story world. Fantastical stories generally get more leeway and can create hypothetical situations to act out the ramifications of what-if scenarios; Watchmen presented an alternate 1985 in which America had won the Vietnam War and Nixon was still president and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds reimagined the ending of World War II. It is true that prejudice and tension between ethnic groups are largely absent from First Class but that is because the human-mutant tension is a metaphor for that conflict as well as a conflation of other issues of the time period.

In this criticism about First Class, I’m reminded of the original Planet of the Apes. This film remains one of the most insightful and intelligent science fiction films ever made and much has been written about the film’s dealings with issues like race, class, and gender. Although it is a product of its time (the film was released in 1968 with a steady stream of sequels produced between 1970 and 1973) it remains a relevant film in part because The Planet of the Apes’ statements on those issues were broad enough to transcend the circumstances of the period in which it was created. Science fiction and fantasy engages with the topics of the day through metaphors and this process allows viewers the option of accepting and engaging with those issues or ignoring them and simply taking the story at face value. To argue that First Class does not deal with racial issues or similar themes just because they filmmakers do not hit that nail on the head ignores the modus operandi of fantasy. Racial themes are all over First Class but they are presented indirectly through the mutant metaphor.

Other discontent over First Class‘ dealings with race is based upon the notion that it is supposed to be about racism in the context of American history, and that the characters Professor X and Magneto are stand-ins for Martin Luther King and Malcom X, respectively. Mikhail Lyubansky observes that in the original X-Men film, Magneto proclaims that a mutant versus human war is coming and "I intend to fight it by any means necessary." Elaborating on the parallel, Lyubansky writes, “Despite what I assume are noble intentions on the part of the creative teams, for this generation of film-goers it likely means a distorted view of Malcolm X and the Civil Rights Movement, an unrealistic understanding of contemporary race relations, and an unintended promotion of the racial status quo.” This argument is predicated upon the belief that Magneto is indeed intended to be a literal metaphor for a specific historical figure. If that were the case, this concern might be more germane. However, while the quote from the first film is a fairly obvious allusion to Malcom X, that does not mean that Magneto is a stand in for the actual historical figure. The Malcom X – Magneto argument is not sustained by multiple examples throughout the films. Instead the metaphor is taken in other directions, leading to X-Men’s actual target, which is much broader than a specific historical figure and is ultimately more subversive.

Both the original X-Men film and First Class begin with Magneto’s backstory as a Holocaust survivor. Reference to this backstory is made throughout X2 and The Last Stand. This backstory is the key to the thematic agenda of the X-Men films. Magneto suffered at the hands of the Nazis, who justified genocide under the auspices of a racial supremacy. Throughout the first half of First Class, Magneto tracks down his persecutors and kills them (shades of Munich, perhaps?). By the end of this film, Magneto has become the very thing he was fighting against by declaring himself and his fellow mutants as superior beings not by acts of virtue but inherently superior based upon their identity. This evolution from victim to persecutor is brought out very poignantly in the climax as Magneto turns missiles back on his attackers with the proclamation, “Never again.” Adopting and adapting Holocaust imagery and slogans and using it to suggest that our grasp upon moral virtue is slippery flies in the face of the kind of dogmatic moral certitude that often characterizes Hollywood action cinema. It also suggests a broader and more complicated message about heroism and villainy that is bigger than any particular historical figure or period.

Another film I’m reminded of is Paul Haggis’ 2005 picture Crash. Although the film won the Oscar for Best Picture, it was also highly criticized for an oversimplified take on race. I don’t want to re-litigate the defense of Crash, but I will restate this: Crash was not about race, at least not centrally. Rather, the film was about the alienation and isolation of contemporary life, with race playing an important part in that. As Don Cheadle’s character states in the opening scene, “It's the sense of touch . . . We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.” The criticism of Crash as an inadequate dramatization of race relations reveals less about the film and more about those who viewed it. Amid a culture that is drowning in bubblegum music, killer robot movies, emo-vampire books , and tabloid news coverage, there is a yearning by the audience for art that actually deals with the substance of life and among those issues are race relations. The disappointment with Crash wasn’t with what it was, but with what it wasn’t.

First Class needs to be evaluated based on what it is and what it does. The film does deal with race but that is a plank from X-Men’s primary themes of fear, prejudice, and intolerance. The reason that X-Men has remained such a viable series is that these themes can be reinterpreted and applied to gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion and any other matter of difference. The most recent incarnation of this story shows the roots of those themes and kicks off a cyclical relationship of fear and violence that plays out in the three X-Men films that proceed from it. This is the message of the X-Men series and First Class provides a metaphor for understanding the anxieties of oppressed populations and individuals and how the internal divisions within those groups are sown. It is an important theme, and while it is debatable how well or how accurately First Class depicts that theme, it is mistake to say that the film ignores it altogether.

Fish Frye playing at Mid West Music Fest 4/16/11

2011-04-14T20:27:00.000-07:00

Attention Winona-area listeners: Mid West Music Fest takes place April 15 and 16th in Winona. Fish Frye, the official band of Sounds of Cinema, will be playing on Saturday at 8pm at The Bookshelf/Blue Heron.

You can find out more about Mid West Music Fest here and you can find out more about Fish Frye here.

Supplements to the 'Lake of Fire' Screening

2011-04-13T16:27:00.000-07:00

I have made two supplements to the Lake of Fire screening available online.

The first is an audio file of guest commentaries from various individuals including Winona State University faculty and pro-abortion and anti-abortion activists. You can find a downloadable mp3 file here.

Second, I have published an essay on Lake of Fire at Winona360, explaining why I showed Lake of Fire, why I think it is an important film, and what can be learned from it. Here is an excerpt:

Before screening Lake of Fire at Winona State I introduced the film to the audience and read a short excerpt from The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer. He writes, “The true believer is everywhere on the march, and both by converting and antagonizing he is shaping the world in his own image.” This quote could well play as an epigraph to Lake of Fire as it encapsulates the underlying theme of the film. It also answers one of the main criticisms of the film: that it focuses on the extremists, particularly on the anti-abortion side of the debate.

It may be true that most people who hold opinions about abortion one way or the other (which accounts for the majority of Americans) are not violent nor do they approve of violence toward those who hold opposing viewpoints. But the loudest voices have been those who have declared the abortion debate a holy war and their battle cries drown out the rational or moderate voices. In that respect, the extremists are setting the tone. Because the moderate voices cannot get a word in, they are like a television program that no one watches or a blog that no one reads. This source may have the best material or the most accurate information but if no one receives it, then it may as well not exist at all. Perception is reality and the extremists, by dominating the discussion, are in the process of reshaping reality, for themselves and for the rest of us, to fit this holy war perspective.

Also, related to the subject of Lake of Fire, check out Rachel Maddow's interview with Stephen Singular, author of The Wichita Divide, a new book about the murder of abortion provider George Tiller:

Part 1:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Part 2

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

'Lake of Fire' Commentary on Sounds of Cinema

2011-04-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

Depending on where you hear Sounds of Cinema, listeners will receive one of two episodes.

Listeners to 89.7 KMSU FM in Mankato will hear a special pledge drive edition of the show. If you listen to this station, please consider supporting its fundraising efforts.

Listeners to 89.5 KQAL FM in Winona will hear a follow up to the screening of Lake of Fire, including commentary on the film from viewers on either side of the abortion issue as well as several Winona State University faculty members analyzing the film based upon their academic specialties.

Support KMSU's Spring Pledge Drive

2011-04-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

Listeners in the Mankato area are encouraged to support 89.7 KMSU FM's spring pledge drive. The station is dependent upon the support of its listeners in order to keep functioning.

This Sunday, Sounds of Cinema will broadcast a special pledge drive episode that will showcase what this particular program adds to the station as well as drawing attention to the other great programming on KMSU.

As I have pointed out in the past, how much you give is not nearly as important as the fact that you do give. While it would be easy if one particularly wealthy and generous individual could gift the station a large sum of money twice a year, it would be far more impressive if a large cross section of listeners made small contributions that resulted in a comparable sum because that demonstrates just how important the station is to the community. Your pledges not only keep the station on the air but they also justify its existence.

To make a pledge, call 507-389-5678, or 1-800-456-7810 or visit the website http://www.kmsu.org/.

'Lake of Fire' on April 5th

2011-04-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

A reminder that the abortion documentary Lake of Fire will be showing on the Winona State University campus on Tuesday, April 5th at 7pm in the Somsen Auditorium. The event is open to the public and admission is free. The film is not rated but viewer discretion is advised. Find out more about the film here.

Update: Thanks to all who came out to see Lake of Fire. Additional thanks to those that supported the screening by placing signage in their businesses or offices and otherwise promoted the event.

Women's Studies Film Festival at Viterbo University

2011-03-30T17:22:00.000-07:00

Viterbo University, located in La Crosse, Wisconsin, will be holding a Women's Studies Film Festival March 30th - April 20th. The descirptions of the films come from the press release:

Mai’s America
Showing in two parts: Wednesday, March 30, and Friday, April 1 at 11–11:50 a.m. in MRC 500
Thursday, March 31: 4:30–5:50 p.m. in MRC 444
Tuesday, April 12: 11 a.m.–12:20 p.m. in RCE 127 and at 12:30–1:50 p.m. in RCE 127

Mai’s America is an intimate portrait of Mai—a spunky, mini-skirted daughter of Ho Chi Minh’s revolution. Fueled by the opportunity for abetter education and enticed by MTV inspired visions of America, Mai travels to the U.S. for her senior year of high school. Nothing in her wildest imagination prepares Mai for her
crash landing in rural Mississippi where her relationships with white Pentecostal and black Baptist host-families, self-proclaimed rednecks, transvestites, and South Vietnamese immigrants challenge her long-held ideas about America, about herself, about freedom, and even about Vietnam.

The Codes of Gender
Tuesday, April 5: 10–11:50 a.m. in RC 233, 1–2:50 p.m. in RC 233, 3–4:50 p.m. in RC 233
Wednesday, April 20: 3:10–4:30 p.m. in MRC 500

Written and directed by MEF Executive Director Sut Jhally, The Codes of Gender applies the late sociologist Erving Goffman’s groundbreaking analysis of advertising to the contemporary commercial landscape, showing how one of American popular culture’s most influential forms communicates normative ideas about masculinity and femininity.

Women of Faith
Thursday, April 7: 12:30–1:50 p.m. in FAC 204B

Individual interviews with seven women explore how rebellion can happen within and outside the Church,
how women in the Church reconcile conflicting religious, personal, and political beliefs, and how
they view official Church positions on contraception, homosexuality, and women’s ordination as priests.
Both timely and insightful, the film provides a rare look at their experiences and current controversies
over tradition, change, and power within the Catholic Church.

I Was a Teenage Feminist
Thursday, April 14: 7–9:30 p.m. in RCE 127
Why is it that some young, independent, progressive women in today’s society feel uncomfortable
identifying with the F-word? Join filmmaker Therese Shechter as she takes a funny, moving, and very
personal journey into the heart of feminism. Armed with a video camera and an irreverent sense of humor,
Shechter talks with feminist superstars, rowdy frat boys, liberated Cosmo girls, and Radical Cheerleaders,
all in her quest to find out whether feminism can still be a source of personal and political power.

Angel in the Village
Showing in two parts Monday, April 18 and Wednesday, April 20: 11–11:50 a.m. in MRC 436

Angel in the Village follows the Chinese-born, Philadelphia-based artist, Lily Yeh, as she works
to create social change through art in distressed urban environments. Her primary canvas is the
Village of Arts and Humanities in North Philadelphia, an organization that builds community through
innovative arts-based programs in education, land transformation, and economic development.

ANNOUNCEMENT: 'Lake of Fire' Screening at Winona State University

2011-03-22T14:45:00.000-07:00

Sounds of Cinema is sponsoring a public screening of the documentary film Lake of Fire on the Winona State University Campus on April 5th at 7pm in the Somsen Auditorium.

Called "an enormous act of social conscience" by Time Out New York, "a significant piece of journalism" by Film Journal International, and "the most prismatic film ever made on the subject" by The A.V. Club, Lake of Fire is a sweeping exploration of the abortion debate. The film includes interviews with such diverse voices as political commentators Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowitz, bioethicist Peter Singer, Roe v. Wade plaintiff Norma McCorvey, columnist Nat Hentoff, Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry, law professor Douglas Kmiec, and attorney Sarah Weddington. Rather than appealing to one side of the issue or the other, the film is a caricature of the abortion debate itself, exploring the vicissitudes of a difficult topic. In the process, Lake of Fire forces its way past familiar and deep-rooted talking points and connects the abortion debate to broader issues such as our regard for the value of human life, conceptions of individual freedom and communal good, the way religious rhetoric impacts discourse, and the appeal of mass movements. By the end, Lake of Fire not only characterizes the abortion debate but also provides a look into what the debate reveals about who we are as a people.

The film is not rated but it does contains footage of a graphic nature. Viewer discretion is advised. Click here for further information about the film.

GLBTA Film Series at Winona State University

2011-03-18T02:39:00.000-07:00

Winona State University will be hosting a Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender-Ally film series from March 21 - 31. All events are free and open to the public. The following descriptions of the films come from the press release.

March 21st: Itty Bitty Titty Committee
When: 7:00 PM (87 minutes)
Where: Somsen Auditorium
This latest fabulous movie from Jamie (But I’m a Cheerleader) Babbit is a dynamic, romantic, frequently funny and politically astute movie with a smart script, rocking soundtrack and terrific ensemble cast that includes sexy young Melonie Diaz as the new dyke on the block who falls in with a great gang of Feminist troublemakers called Clits in Action (CiA), and then falls in love with leader of the pack, Nicole Vicius. Unfortunately, Nicole has a girlfriend Melanie Mayron and, as they say, drama ensues.

March 22nd: It Doesn't Define Us
When: 7:00 PM (80 minutes)
Where: Science Lab 120
It Doesn't Define Us is a feature length documentary about gay rights and many of the issues the GLBT community is facing not only in the state of Minnesota but also nationwide. The film introduces same-sex couples who decide to start a family, discusses coming out of the closet, looks into the politics working both for and against the GLBT community, and also touches on media portrayals. Over a year and a half, filmmakers Bruce Meyers and Gordy Severson conducted over 40 interviews featuring FOX 9's Robyne Robinson, KARE-11's Jana Shortal, Minnesota State Senator Scott Dibble and well-known gay activist Mandy Carter. Co-Director Gordon Severson will introduce the film and answer questions at the end.

March 24th: Brother to Brother
When: 7:00 PM
Where: Science Lab 120
Brother to Brother is the story of Perry, a young black artist kicked out of his family home for being gay. Trapped between the worlds of the black community and the gay community, Perry searches for a connection in the real world and embarks on a literal and metaphorical journey to the creative center for the younger, rebellious generation of the Harlem Renaissance. Brother to Brother is a moving testimony to the transformative powers of history, art and storytelling.

March 25th: Out in the Silence
When 7:00 PM (56 minutes)
Where: Science Lab 120
Following the story of a small American town confronting a firestorm of controversy ignited by a same-sex wedding announcement in the local newspaper, this gripping documentary illustrates the challenges of being an outsider in a conservative rural community and the change that is possible when courageous people break the silence and search for common ground.

March 26th: Beautiful Boxer
When: 7:00 PM (118 minutes)
Where: Science Lab 120
Based on the true story of Thailand's famed transgender kickboxer, Beautiful Boxer is a poignant action drama that punches straight into the heart and mind of a boy who fights like a man so he can become a woman. Believing he's a girl trapped in a boy's body since childhood, Parinya Charoenphol (affectionately known as Nong Toom in Thailand) sets out to master the most masculine and lethal sport of Muay Thai (Thai boxing) to earn a living and to achieve his ultimate goal of total femininity.

March 28th: Forever's Gonna Start Tonight
When: 7:50 PM (54 minutes)
Where: Stark Hall 103
Forever's Gonna Start Tonight tells the astounding life story of San Francisco living legend Vicki Marlane, still strutting it onstage at 75. Vicki takes us on the ride of her life — from cross-dressed rollerskating in her youth to working the carnival sideshows circuit in the 1950s, from the wild years of San Francisco in the 1970s, to survival in the 1980s and her legendary performances at Aunt Charlie's, where she continues to perform today.

March 29th: Bi the Way
When: 7:00 PM (85 minutes)
Where: Somsen Auditorium
The iron curtain between gay and straight is crumbling. The Bible belt is being unbuckled. Recent studies suggest that bisexuality is drastically more widespread than we ever thought. And for young people, dating a girl one week and a guy the next is no big deal. Journeying through the changing sexual landscape of America, the directors of Bi the Way investigate the latest scientific reports and social opinions on bisexuality, while following five members of the emerging “whatever” generation—teens and twenty-somethings who seem to be ushering in a whole new sexual revolution.

March 30th: Boy I am
When: 7:00 PM (72 minutes)
Where: Stark Hall 103
While female-to-male transgender visibility has recently exploded in this country, conversations about trans issues in the lesbian community often run into resistance from the many queer women who view transitioning as a "trend" or as an anti-feminist act that taps into male privilege. Boy I Am is a feature-length documentary that begins to break down that barrier and promote dialogue about trans issues through a look at the experiences of three young transitioning FTMs in New York City—Nicco, Norie and Keegan—as they go through major junctures in their transitions, as well as through the voices of lesbians, activists and theorists who raise and address the questions that many people have but few openly discuss.

March 31st: Two Spirits
When: 7:00 PM (60 minutes)
Where: Somsen Auditorium
Two Spirits interweaves the tragic story of a mother’s loss of her son with a revealing look at a time when the world wasn’t simply divided into male and female and many Native American cultures held places of honor for people of integrated genders. Fred Martinez was nádleehí, a male-bodied person with a feminine nature, a special gift according to his ancient Navajo culture. But the place where two discriminations meet is a dangerous place to live, and Fred became one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was brutally murdered at sixteen. Between tradition and controversy, sex and spirit, and freedom and fear, lives the truth—the bravest choice you can make is to be yourself. A brief reception will be held following the final film screening.

The film series is curated by Dr. Andrea Wood of the WSU English Department and is sponsored by the WSU Foundation, Office of Inclusion and Diversity, GLBTA Faculty Committee, English Department, Women's and Gender Studies, Mass Communications Department, History Department, Social Work, and GLBTA Partnership. Any questions about these events can be sent to Dr. Wood at awood@winona.edu.

'Bag It' at Winona State

2011-03-17T18:46:00.000-07:00

The Winona State University chemistry and environmental clubs are sponsoring a showing of the documentary Bag It at 7 p.m. Friday, March 18th, in Science Laboratory Center 120. The hour-long film addresses the use of disposable plastics and the effects on the community and environment. The screening is free and open to the public.

Commentary on the Academy Awards 2011

2011-03-06T10:46:00.000-08:00

As many of you are probably aware, this year’s Academy Awards ceremony was held last week. Regular listeners of this show are familiar with my take on the Oscars, as well as the whole Hollywood awards circuit. In the past I’ve gone to great lengths to criticize the show and its choices. To summarize, I’ve argued that Hollywood’s award circuit is largely a sham. The awards are distributed on a political and capricious basis and the televised ceremonies are little more than three hour commercials for the products of media corporations, masquerading as art appreciation.

I’ve said most of this on the air before and my previous rants on the subject can be found on the website for this show, so I don’t feel compelled to reiterate my complaints in full. Generally I’ve ignored the Oscars altogether, since there is plenty of coverage in the mainstream press and predications of the winners aren’t based on anything other than an educated guess.

However, I’ve had a softening of my opinion about the awards. Most of my criticisms still stand, but looking at the bigger picture there is a way in which these awards actually benefit audiences and even aid filmmakers.

Like most things it life, it comes down to money. The marketing model that has overtaken Hollywood production and distribution over the past three decades puts the emphasis on large event films that are expected to make, at minimum, $150 million in their domestic theatrical run. Ironically, most of the films that are the biggest box office draws are also the costliest to make, and so the profit margins are comparable to lower budgeted films. The highest grossing film of 2010 was Toy Story 3, which made $415 million but cost $200 million to produce. Another animated film, Tangled, was the tenth highest grossing film of the past year with $194 million at the box office but it cost $260 million, making it a net loss. But nevertheless, Hollywood’s behavior seems to be dominated by a belief that bigger is better.

Another important part of Hollywood’s economic model is the emphasis on opening weekends. This is something that has developed over the past decade and it has become a significant impediment to film distribution. As filmmaker Kevin Smith recently noted, the entire judgment of a film’s success or failure is based on its first three days of release. If a film does not premiere at number one on its opening weekend and make a spectacular debut, it is quickly pulled from theaters. There is no room for a film to cultivate an audience based on word of mouth. This is especially true in middle-America where theater space is at a premium. As a result, studios are spending huge amounts of money on advertizing costs, sometimes more than the production cost of the films.

This obsession with opening weekends combined with a bigger-is-better mentality has resulted in an industry that is cannibalizing itself with remakes, reboots, sequels, prequels, spinoffs, and rip-offs, making bigger and louder versions of classic movies or remixing franchises that have run their course. It has also created a marketplace in which small films have no chance to compete, at least not in theaters.

This is where the Oscars come in. The best picture winners the past few years, such as The King’s Speech, The Hurt Locker, and Slumdog Millionaire, and some of the nominees in that category such as Winter’s Bone, The Kids Are All Right, Precious, An Education, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Milk, do not fit into the blockbuster standard by which many studio films are now green lit. They’re not special effects driven, they are not derived from a toy line, and they don’t fit into neat genre categories.

But these films don’t tend to do huge business either. In theatrical release, The Kids Are All Right made $20 million, The Hurt Locker made $17 million, and Winter’s Bone only made $6 million. All these films were profitable, at least in comparing theatrical gross to production costs, but they are nowhere near the $300 million box office of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse or the $400 million take of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Hollywood studios need an incentive to make films that are not going to earn hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s important to remember that it’s called show business for a reason. And the Oscars can be that incentive. Films generally receive an economic bump from a nomination and so audiences that might not otherwise have heard of these films have a better chance of seeing them. And there is also an image and morale incentive, as studios earn bragging rights for creating award winning pictures and thereby attract talented actors, producers and directors who want to make those kinds of films.

I’m not letting the Oscars off the hook. Not by a long shot. Nominations are a valuable commodity and the films that get recognized tend to appeal to a lowest common denominator of Academy groupthink. There is a resistance to films that are politically or aesthetically challenging and minority filmmakers and performers are sorely underrepresented. That’s to say nothing of the televised ceremony, which is a nauseating display of wealthy and beautiful people congratulating themselves on being wealthy and beautiful.

The Academy Awards are a part of the culture and a fixture of Hollywood. It’s not going away. As problematic and flawed as the awards are, there is a silver lining. In the current media environment where ownership has been consolidated and the means of production are controlled not by artists but by corporations, these awards not only highlight some of the bright spots of Hollywood’s output each year but actually ensure their existence.

Women's History Month Film Screenings at WSU

2011-02-28T19:16:00.001-08:00

March is Women's History Month and there will be several related film screenings on the Winona State campus over the next few weeks.

Jump at the Sun
Tuesday, March 1, 7 pm Somsen Auditorium
84 minutes
A biography of Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God. A discussion led by Dr. Gretchen Michlitsch will follow the film.

Red Moon: Menstruation, Culture & the Politics of Gender
Thursday, March 17, 7 pm, Science Lab Auditorium (SL120)
53 minutes
Red Moon provides a take on the absurd and frequently dangerous cultural stigmas and superstitions surrounding women's menstruation. The film functions as both a myth-busting overview of the realities of menstruation, and a piercing cultural analysis of the ways in which struggles over meaning and power have played out through history on the terrain of women's bodies.

Itty Bitty Titty Committee
Monday, March 21, 7:00 pm, Somsen Auditorium
87 minutes
From Jamie Babbit, director of But I’m a Cheerleader, this feature film tells the story of a young woman who falls in with a gang of feminist troublemakers.

It Doesn’t Define Us
Tuesday, March 22, 7:00 pm, Science Lab Auditorium (SL120)
80 minutes
It Doesn't Define Us is a feature length documentary about gay rights and many of the issues the GLBT community is facing not only in the state of Minnesota but also nationwide. Filmmakers Bruce Meyers and Gordy Severson conducted over 40 interviews featuring FOX 9's Robyne Robinson, KARE-11's Jana Shortal, Minnesota State Senator Scott Dibble and well-known gay activist Mandy Carter.

Commentary on the AFI's 25 Greatest Film Scores

2011-02-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, February 27th, Sounds of Cinema completed a two-part series of episodes that showcased the American Film Institute’s picks of the twenty-five greatest film scores of all time. This list was released in 2005 as a part of the institute’s "100 Years" series. Although I think the organization made mostly good choices on this compilation of film scores, I do have some criticisms of the AFI and their lists.

First is a practical criticism. The lists are never really definitive because films continue to get made and work that surpasses the motion pictures and scores on this and other AFI lists could be superseded at any time. There is also a related question of quantity. All other AFI lists included 100 choices but for some reason this list of scores was limited to twenty-five. Both concerns highlight the arbitrary nature of these lists.

Second, the AFI's list is imprecise in its criteria. The description on the AFI's page about the list indicates that these are the most memorable film scores of all time. Memorable is not necessarily synonymous with "good" and "good music" can have radically different meanings to different people at different times. The scores of John Williams tend to use a leitmotif technique, in which themes are established and manipulated to link the music closely to the action and editing of the film. Other scores, like those of Bernard Herrmann, tend to create a musical atmosphere. Neither style is necessarily better than the other, although some film and music critics may argue otherwise. But what is to be judged as art, or for that matter as a definitive example of film music, varies over time as techniques and sounds come in and out of style.

Third, this particular list of film scores is specifically directed at original compositions. It is an understandable caveat, but as a result the list ignores a broader use of music in film. The AFI’s list of great scores excludes adaptations and interpolations of classical works into a film, such as the soundtrack to 2001: A Space Odyssey which effectively uses music by Richard Strauss in one of the most memorable marriages of music and moving imagery in any film ever made. The list also excludes the use of popular music or the combination of pop music with score. This leaves out soundtracks to films like Top Gun, Do the Right Thing, and American Graffiti.

My last major criticism of these lists is that the AFI shows preferential treatment toward big budget films from Hollywood studios. Independent films are mostly absent from all AFI lists and its register of great film music is almost entirely made of large orchestral scores that conform to a classic Hollywood sound. Synthetic or electronic music is entirely absent and scores limited to piano or a small ensemble are few in number. This leaves out music from films like Shaft, Halloween, and Requiem for a Dream.

With that in mind, I’ve come up with a list of scores that I think rival at least half of the AFI’s picks. I’ve listed them alphabetically by film title. In assembling the list, I have omitted film musicals but I have retained films that use popular or vocal music as a part of the soundtrack or include musical performances as part of the diegesis of the film.

28 Days Later (2002) John Murphy, et al.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Various Artists
Aliens (1987) James Horner
Amadeus (1984) Various Artists
American Graffiti (1973) Various Artists
Apocalypse Now (1979) Carmine Coppola, et al.
August Rush (2007) Various Artists
Back to the Future (1985) Alan Silvestri, et al.
Batman (1989) Danny Elfman & Prince
Beverly Hills Cop (1984) Harold Faltermeyer, et al.
Black Swan (2010) Clint Mansell
Blade Runner (1982) Vangelis
Born on the Fourth of July (1989) John Williams
Braveheart (1995) James Horner
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) Henry Mancini
The Breakfast Club (1985) Various Artists
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) Franz Waxman
Candyman (1992) Philip Glass
Cape Fear (1991) Elmer Bernstein
Casablanca (1942) Max Steiner
Chariots of Fire (1981) Vangelis
Chocolat (2000) Rachel Portman
Cinema Paradisio (1988) Ennio Morricone
Citizen Kane (1941) Bernard Herrmann
Cleopatra (1963) Alex North
A Clockwork Orange (1971) Wendy Carlos, et al.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) John Williams
Conan the Barbarian (1982) Basil Poledouris
Crash (2005) Mark Isham
Dances With Wolves (1990) John Barry
The Dark Knight (2008) Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard
Die Hard (1988) Michael Kamen, et al.
Dirty Harry (1971) Lalo Schifrin
Do The Right Thing (1989) Various Artists
Doctor Zhivago (1965) Maurice Jarre
Double Indemnity (1944) Miklos Rozsa
Dr. No (1962) Monty Norman & John Barry
Dracula (1992) Wojciech Kilar
East of Eden (1955) Leonard Rosenman
Easy Rider (1969) Various Artists
The Exorcist (1973) Steve Boeddeker, et al.
Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Various Artists
Fahrenheit 451 (1966) Bernard Herrmann
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) Various Artists
Fight Club (1999) The Dust Brothers
Finding Neverland (1994) Jan A.P. Kaczmarek
The Fugitive (1993) James Newton Howard
Forrest Gump (1994) Alan Silvestri, et al.
Ghostbusters (1984) Elmer Bernstein, et al.
Gimmie Shelter (1970) Various Artists
Gladiator (2000) Hans Zimmer
Goldfinger (1964) John Barry
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) Ennio Morricone
The Graduate (1968) Simon & Garfunkel
Halloween (1977) John Carpenter
A Hard Day’s Night (1964) The Beatles
Hustle & Flow (2005) Various Artists
In the Heat of the Night (1967) Quincy Jones
Into the Wild (2007) Eddie Vedder
The Jazz Singer (1937) Louis Silvers
The Last Picture Show (1971) Hank Williams Jr.
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) Peter Gabriel
The Lion in Winter (1968) John Barry
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Howard Shore
Lucifer Rising (1980) Bobby Beausoleil
Manhunter (1986) Michel Rubini, et al.
The Matrix (1999) Don Davis, et al.
Naked Lunch (1991) Howard Shore
Natural Born Killers (1994) Various Artists
Navajo Joe (1966) Ennio Morricone
Night of the Living Dead (1968) Various Artists
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Charles Bernstein
North By Northwest (1959) Bernard Herrmann
The Omen (1978) Jerry Goldsmith
Once Upon a Time in America (1984) Ennio Morricone
The Passion of the Christ (2004) John Debney
Patton (1972) Jerry Goldsmith
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985) Danny Elfman
Platoon (1986) Georges Delerue
Plunkett & MacLeane (1999) Craig Armstrong
Poltergeist (1982) Jerry Goldsmith
Predator (1987) Alan Silvestri
Psycho II (1983) Jerry Goldsmith
Pulp Fiction (1994) Various Artists
Purple Rain (1984) Prince
Raging Bull (1980) Various Artists
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) John Williams
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) Jerry Goldsmith
Reservoir Dogs (1992) Various Artists
Requiem for a Dream (2000) Clint Mansell
A River Runs Through It (1992) Mark Isham
Rocky (1976) Bill Conti
Rocky IV (1985) Vince DiCola, et al.
Romeo and Juliet (1996) Craig Armstrong, et al.
Rudy (1993) Jerry Goldsmith
The Sand Pebbles (1966) Jerry Goldsmith
Schindler’s List (1993) John Williams
Scorpio Rising (1964) Various Artists
Shaft (1971) Isaac Hayes
The Shining (1980) Wendy Carlos, et al.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Howard Shore
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) A.R. Rahman
Spartacus (1960) Alex North
St. Elmo’s Fire (1985) Various Artists
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) Jerry Goldsmith
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) James Horner
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980) John Williams
Superman: The Movie (1978) John Williams
Suspiria (1977) Goblin
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) Earth, Wind & Fire
The Thin Red Line (1998) Hans Zimmer
Taxi Driver (1976) Bernard Herrmann
The Ten Commandments (1956) Elmer Bernstein
The Terminator (1984) Brad Fiedel
There Will Be Blood (2008) Jonny Greenwood
This is Spinal Tap (1984) Various Artists
Titanic (1998) James Horner
Top Gun (1987) Harold Faltermeyer, et al.
Toy Story (1995) Randy Edelman
Unforgiven (1992) Lennie Niehaus and Clint Eastwood
Walk the Line (2005) Johnny Cash, et al.
Where the Wild Things Are (2009) Karen O. and the Kids
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) Alex North
The Wind and the Lion (1975) Jerry Goldsmith
Woodstock (1970) Various Artists

This list is not definitive. That's not really the point. The value of the American Film Institute’s lists, as well as the many lists created by critics and fans in response, is in their ability to highlight some great and important music and force viewers to think about what it is they value in film. Lists like this are made to incite debate and thereby prompt people to think about film. In the end, the purpose of the AFI’s “100 Years” project was to deepen and broaden the public’s appreciation of film.That’s a goal I can get behind and it's why I spent two episodes of this show on it.

AFI's Greatest Scores Part 2

2011-02-24T17:18:00.000-08:00

This Sunday, February 27th, Sounds of Cinema will continue to count down the American Film Institute's list of the twenty-five greatest film scores, covering the AFI's top ten picks. Tune in for music from The Magnificent Seven, Lawrence of Arabia, and Jaws. The show will also include a presentation of scores that could challenge many of the AFI's picks.

The Culture of Borrowing

2011-02-20T17:04:00.000-08:00

Richard Rushfield has written this article for The Daily Beast on the troubled reception of Lady Gaga's new song "Born This Way" and the accusations of plagiarism made against her. He connects this trend of sampling to the broader media culture in which we live, especially film. Rushfield notes how the style of Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere was derivative of the films of Michelangelo Antonioni and Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan shows a lot of influence from Dario Argento. But as Rushfield observes, context and perception matter. Rushfield writes:

When borrowing someone else’s work, a little humility goes a long way. Quentin Tarantino has built a career on mixing and matching sequences, songs, and costumes from early works, but so great is the reverence of the world’s leading film geek for those earlier works that no one accuses him of trying to steal their creative glory. His useage is widely accepted as genuine homage. Each generation of artists builds upon or rebels against their predecessors. The French New Wave referred to Hollywood’s Golden Age, and the Scorsese/Francis Ford Coppola generation referenced the French New Wave. But in every one of these cases, where innovations were borrowed, there was a clear master/student relationship, made abundantly clear by those on the receiving end.

What Rushfield states here is important, especially as we try to understand and evaluate all of the remakes, reboots, sequels, and spin offs coming out of Hollywood. There is a tendency to dismiss these films and sometimes that is rightfully done, especially when it is clear that a character or franchise is being resurrected merely to make a quick buck. But art is social and it always exists in a cultural and technical context. Borrowing from the past makes sense when it is used for something, even if it is as simple as re-imagining an older story or idea for a contemporary audience. But the new product, while not altogether original, must stand on its own. When we view a film that recycles characters, concepts, or stories (either a specific title or a genre formula) we are right to demand that the filmmakers present the familiar in a way that provides a new perspective. That is the main reason, if not the only reason, to create art in the first place.

Two-Part Sounds of Cinema AFI Countdown

2011-02-17T17:21:00.000-08:00

Sounds of Cinema will count down the American Film Institute's list of the twenty-five greatest film scores on a two-part episode. The first part, to air February 20th, will include the scores at positions twenty-five through eleven, featuring music from films such as How the West Was Won, Ben-Hur, The Pink Panther, King Kong, and Vertigo. The second part, to air February 27th, will count down the AFI's top ten picks.

Why Christopher Nolan Wasn't Nominated for Best Director

2011-02-16T17:28:00.000-08:00

Writing for The Daily Beast, Chris Lee explores why Christopher Nolan was not nominated for a Best Director Oscar for Inception, even though the film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. According to Lee, the Academy's snub may have several dimensions, including Nolan's demeanor and the commercial appeal of his films, but it may also have to do with the lack of campaigning Nolan does on his own behalf. Lee writes:

While legendarily dyspeptic directors such as David O. Russell (The Fighter), David Fincher (The Social Network) and even the notoriously aloof Coen brothers (True Grit) have taken to stumping for their films with endless interview roundelays worthy of a presidential campaign, Nolan has largely sat out the process. Save for appearing at the ceremonies for which he was already nominated, such as the Directors Guild Awards, and being named a Modern Master at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the filmmaker has skipped getting on the phone with reporters to concentrate on prepping his third Batman sequel, The Dark Knight Rises.

I've addressed my feelings about the Oscars before (see here and here) and I'll have something new and of greater length to say about the annual ceremony at a later date. But for now, Lee's article reinforces the political nature of the Academy Awards and the culture of campaigning around the ceremony undermines the integrity of the trophies as the press blitz behind the pictures surpasses the films themselves.

Sounds of Cinema Valentine's Day Programming

2011-02-10T17:31:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, February 13th, Sounds of Cinema will not air on 89.7 KMSU FM in Mankato. All weekend programing on the station will be preempted for the annual 50 Hours of Trivia Madness, which originates from KVSC FM in St. Cloud. You can find out more about the trivia game here.

Sounds of Cinema will be heard at its usual time at 9am on 89.5 KQAL FM in Winona. This weekend's show will be the annual Anti-Valentine's Day episode, in which I will counter-program to the holiday of flowers, hearts, and overall mushiness with musical selections from films like Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, and Unfaithful. Grab a box of chocolates and snuggle up to the radio for some love.

John Barry Retrospective

2011-02-08T01:34:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday's show featured a sample of music from the career of film composer John Barry. Barry was responsible for a number of popular and award winning film scores including Cry the Beloved Country, Chaplin, Dances with Wolves, Body Heat, King Kong (1976), The Deep, Out of Africa, Mary, Queen of Scots, The Lion in Winter, Midnight Cowboy, and twelve of the James Bond films. Over the course of his career he was recognized with five Academy Awards, two BAFTAs, and a Grammy. John Barry died on January 30, 2011.

Here are some links that may be of interest:

And here is a montage of select John Barry film scores:

Frozen River Film Festival Presentation

2011-01-24T16:44:00.000-08:00

The Athenaeum lecture series at Winona State University's Krueger Library will feature “The Development of the Partnership Between Winona State University and the Frozen River Film Festival” on Wednesday, January 26, at 1pm on the second floor of the building.

The lecture will be presented by Crystal Hegge, Frozen River Film Festival Director, Jeanine Sorensen, festival coordinator, and Diane Stevens, festival coordinator.

You can find out more about the Athenaeum series here. The Frozen River Film Fesival runs from January 26 - 30th and the offical website, including the schedule, can be found here.

2010 End of the Year Wrap Up

2011-01-16T09:01:00.000-08:00

Here are my picks of the 10 best films of 2010:

Black Swan
The Social Network
Creation
Restrepo
The Kids Are All Right
The Town
Toy Story 3
Easy A
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Inception

And here are the 10 worst films of 2010:

The Last Airbender
My Soul to Take
Cop Out
Grown Ups
Killers
The Other Guys
Skyline
Devil
The Switch
Legion

You can find arguments for each film plus lists of honorable mentions and trends from the past year by clicking here.

2010 End of the Year Wrap Up Episode to Air 1/16

2011-01-11T02:22:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, January 16th, Sounds of Cinema will broadcast the 2010 End of the Year Wrap Up. The show will include my picks of the ten best and worst films of the past year, as well as observations about trends in cinema in 2010. Tune in to see if your favorites made the cut.

You can find past End of the Year Wrap Ups here.

Library of Congress Film Registry 2010

2010-12-28T13:32:00.000-08:00

The Library of Congress has announced this year's additions to the National Film Registry:

Airplane (1980)
All the President’s Men (1976)
The Bargain (1914)
Cry of Jazz (1959)
Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (1967)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Exorcist (1973)
The Front Page (1931)
Grey Gardens (1976)
I Am Joaquin (1969)
It’s a Gift (1934)
Let There Be Light (1946)
Lonesome (1928)
Make Way For Tomorrow (1937)
Malcolm X (1992)
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)
Newark Athlete (1891)
Our Lady of the Sphere (1969)
The Pink Panther (1964)
Preservation of the Sign Language (1913)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Study of a River (1996)
Tarantella (1940)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
A Trip Down Market Street (1906)

The National Film Registry archives and preserves films that are deemed to be historically, culturally, or aesthetically important. You can find out more about this year's inductees here.

Variety: Lucasfilm settles lawsuit over 'anticompetitive' behavior

2010-12-21T15:29:00.000-08:00

Variety has just published this article about a Department of Justice investigation into the relationship between Lucasfilm and Pixar. An excerpt:

The DoJ filed a complaint calling on the film, toon and FX powerhouse to stop entering into "anticompetitive" agreements with Pixar that the DoJ says have unfairly affected digital animators. The filing of the complaint included the proposed settlement to end the ongoing suit, pending court approval.

The complaint was part of a larger investigation by the DoJ's antitrust division into tech company employment practices.

The department asserts that Lucasfilm and Pixar each agreed not to cold-call employees at the other company with job offers, to notify each other when offering a job to an employee, and not to counteroffer when such an offer was made.

The article does not mention that Pixar was initially a part of Lucasfilm but was sold to Disney.

Filmography 2010

2010-12-21T10:22:00.000-08:00

Check out this mash up of clips from the films of 2010. It's not much more than a montage of clips and music, but it is really cool.

Olbermann's Tribute to Leslie Nielsen

2010-11-29T22:50:00.000-08:00

On Countdown on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann made a tribute to the memory of actor Leslie Nielsen, noting the actor's long career as a performer and how his deadpan style transferred seamlessly from drama to comedy. Nielsen died on November 28th.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Is Nudity the New Retard?

2010-11-27T14:03:00.000-08:00

In the satirical film Tropic Thunder, Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Stiller played actors who go to ridiculous lengths to court the Hollywood awards circuit. One transforms his physical appearance from Caucasian to African and the other plays a mentally retarded adult. The point of the satire was to criticize just how vacuous and self serving these kinds of dramatic roles had become.

Now we have an essay by Jennie Yabroff at Newsweek about nudity by A-list actors. As Yabroff points out, "Not so long ago (think Porky’s era), gratuitous nude scenes were pretty much de rigueur for American actresses until they became big-enough stars to say no. But increasingly, nudity has become a self-congratulatory indication of European-style seriousness, an interruption of the narrative to remind the audience we are watching A Work of Art."

Although Yabroff is discussing Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal disrobing for the new film Love and Other Drugs, there are additional examples to support this claim. Consider Halle Berry in Monster's Ball, Chloë Sevigny in The Brown Bunny, Kate Winslet in The Reader, or Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg in Antichrist. In each case, the nudity was proclaimed by the press or by the publicity machine behind the film as evidence of its artistic credibility.

That's not to say that these film are artistically void. Some of them were quite good (and few of them were not). And clarify further, I have no problem with nudity or sexuality on screen. Nor do I have a problem with violence or portrayals of retardation. Try to imagine Schindler's List without violence, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest without mentally indigent characters, or In the Realm of the Senses without sexuality. In these films the content is absolutely relevant to the aims of the picture. And that's the point.

The tree Yabroff is scratching at here holds the fruit of Hollywood's awards season and the lengths to which actors, directors, and studios engineer their film making choices to appeal to voters. Self-conscious choices by artists, and especially by those perceived to be glamorous, can be distracting to the story they are trying to tell. When an actor disrobes for camera only to prove that they are a "serious artist," it is really no different from the struggling actor who disrobes only for the sake of attracting attention via their body. As Downey Jr.'s character warns Stiller's in Tropic Thunder, never go full retard.

Criticism of "For Colored Girls"

2010-11-14T23:49:00.000-08:00

I have not seen the film yet, but here is a critical piece by Salamishah Tillet at The Root about Tyler Perry's adaptation of For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. (The film's title is shortened to For Colored Girls.) Here is an excerpt:

Ultimately, Perry's For Colored Girls could reach a larger audience than Shange could ever have imagined the stage and page versions reaching. Much like Lee Daniels' award-winning film Precious, Perry's version stands to usurp the original, not just in popularity but also in political message. Because of this, we need to celebrate Perry's ability to pull out the brilliant and magical performances provided by actresses like Loretta Devine, Anika Noni Rose and Phylicia Rashad and revel in his rare commitment to an all-black women's ensemble.

At the same time, we must remain hyper aware that Perry's For Colored Girls does little to dispel the sexual stereotypes and victim blaming of black women in contemporary American politics and popular culture -- especially of those women who have endured sexual assault, domestic violence, infertility and sexual transmitted infections. (Here, I should mention that Perry's new homophobic plot twist -- involving a closeted, bisexual, HIV-positive black man and his ostensibly emasculating wife -- also works against the open and inclusive spirit of Shange's brand of black feminism.)

But in the end, the durability of Shange's play has as much to do with the genius of her prose as it does with the stubbornness of racism and sexism to shape the material conditions of black women's lives. To his credit, Perry used 85 percent of Shange's original poetry in his final script. So even cloaked in his melodramatic conservatism, the potency of her words can't be fully lost.

This reminds me of last year's controversy over The Blind Side and Precious. The controversy erupted over "negative" versus "positive" portrayals of African Americans. The trouble with that kind of criticism, which often dogs the politics of representation, is that is misses the larger picture. It's true that the The Blind Side portrayed characters who were emblematic of goodness and tolerance and it carried a message of hope. But those characters were facile and their goodness was without sacrifice or insight. Precious' portrayal of African Americans wasn't so much negative as it was complex. That story was cast with full-fledged characters as opposed to stereotypes, with their own flaws and ambitions and hopes and nightmares. And ultimately, that kind of layered and sophisticated portrayal of people, of whatever color, is what we ought to seek and demand from filmmakers.

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" at WSU

2010-11-10T17:23:00.000-08:00

Panhellenic Council, Women and Gender Studies, and PAVE will be hosting a free screening of the movie The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo on Monday, November 15th at 7pm in the Somsen Auditorium on the Winona State University campus.

According to Tracy Rahm, Associate Director of Student Activities & Leadership at WSU, the goal of the screening is to address difficult topics such as rape and sexual abuse. After the movie, PAVE (Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment) will be hosting a discussion. Two advocates from the Women's Resource Center will be at the screening due to the very graphic content of the movie.

Movie Talk in Politics

2010-11-03T22:53:00.000-07:00

This isn't specifically about movies, but it is a good example of the way film, and specifically Hollywood, shapes the way we talk about other subjects, in this case politics. The clip comes from "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" on MSNBC:

"Invisible People" Documentary

2010-11-02T18:42:00.000-07:00

A public screening of the film "The Invisible People" will take place on Friday, November 5 at 7pm on the Winona State University campus in Science Lab 120.

"The Invisible People" is a 29-minute film about the lives of people living in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh. A discussion will follow the screening.

"Invocation of My Demon Brother" with Commentary

2010-10-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

Today's show wrapped up this year's batch of Halloween related episodes. For the last episode I broadcast the entire score from Kenneth Anger's short film "Lucifer Rising."

Here is Anger's short film "Invocation of My Demon Brother," which is made of material from the original version of "Lucifer Rising" that was never completed. The music in this film is composed by Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones. The audio on this video includes Anger's commentary track from "The Films of Kenneth Anger Vol. II" DVD.

Sounds of Cinema Halloween Special to Air in Winona

2010-10-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

Listeners to 89.5 KQAL FM in Winona, MN will be treated to two episodes of Sounds of Cinema this Halloween weekend.

First, the Sounds of Cinema Halloween Special will air at 11pm on Saturday, October 30th. This program will be an hour of music, with minimal interuptions and include audio clips and musical selections from a wide variety of Halloween-related films.

Second, the regularly scheduled episode of Sounds of Cinema will air at the usual time, at 9am on Sunday, October 31st. This episode will feature Bobby Beausoleil's entire score from Kenneth Anger's short film, Lucifer Rising.

Halloween Movie Events in Winona

2010-10-25T02:30:00.000-07:00

In the lead up to Halloween, there are a number of film screenings going on in the Winona area.

Wednesday, October 27th - A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
The Winona State University Sociology club will be screening the original A Nightmare on Elm Street at 7pm in Minne 103. A discussion about scary movies and Halloween will follow.

Thursday, October 28th - Night of the Living Dead (1968)
The WSU English Department's Student Life Committee will be screening the original Night of the Living Dead at 7pm in the Smaug (the lower level of the student union). Snacks will be provided.

Friday, October 29th - Vampyr (1932)
The Fringe Friday Committee is coordinating a showing of the 1932 silent horror movie Vampyr, played to live music, at the Masonic Lodge in Winona at 7pm.

These are some great and important movies and I encourage you all to get out and get scared.

"Cannibal Holocaust" and "American Psycho"

2010-10-24T09:45:00.000-07:00

Today's show continued the month-long Halloween theme with a look back at two very controversial films: Cannibal Holocaust and American Psycho.

Cannibal Holocaust
Cannibal Holocaust was directed by Italian filmmaker Ruggero Deodato. The film premiered in Italy in 1980 and played very successfully for a few weeks. Sergio Leone, the director of films like The Good the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in America sent a letter to Deodato that said, “Dear Ruggero, what a movie! The second part is a masterpiece of cinematographic realism, but everything seems so real that I think you will get in trouble with all the world."

That prediction came true, and the film was seized by Italian authorities and director Ruggero Deodato was arrested on the belief that this was a snuff film. Although Deodato was exonerated of murder charges, Cannibal Holocaust was labeled obscene due to footage of real animals killed at the hands of the actors, and the film was caught in legal limbo for years. The film did not appear in the United States until 1985 but when it did, it was given an X-rating and so its circulation was limited.

In other territories Cannibal Holocaust was heavily cut or banned outright. It is hard if not impossible to determine how many countries actually banned the film, although numbers as high as thirty to fifty have been suggested. If those numbers are correct, Cannibal Holocaust would probably be the most widely banned film of all time. There is some nuance to film bans since a cut version of Cannibal Holocaust is now allowed in locations such as the United Kingdom and Germany, although the complete version is still banned in both places.

Despite the thirty years that have passed since its premiere, Cannibal Holocaust remains a lightning rod of controversy for its animal killings, the portrayal of indigenous people, and the extreme anti-personal violence. But I think most of those explanations are red herrings that distract us from what Cannibal Holocaust is really about, why it really distresses the audience, and why it is distinct and important among horror films.
Cannibal Holocaust is not troubling to the audience for any one charge made against it, but for its cumulative effect. The barbarity of the animal killings, the display of economic and sexual exploitation, and the acts of violence craft a vision of humanity darker than the stories of Joseph Conrad or William Golding. There is a totality to its nihilistic presentation of humanity that stamps out hope.

When a viewer watches a horror film, he or she intentionally submits him or herself to trauma. Most mainstream horror films like Jaws or Psycho scare us and thrill us but in the end leave viewers knowing that good has triumphed over evil and all is right with the world. More challenging horror films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or The Hills Have Eyes do not offer quite the same solace of a closed resolution but generally there is a survivor who we can empathize with and whose self-preservation is a source of relief. These films have a cathartic effect on the viewer, allowing him or her to experience terror and fear from the safety of the theater seat and then walk away to carry on with his or her life.

Cannibal Holocaust refuses to engage in this kind of pattern. It piles on the awfulness and as the rapes and murders accumulate, the film abandons all unwritten agreements of propriety between the filmmaker and the audience. For those who expect to see a liberal humanist notion of human decency emerge from the darkness, the film offers a moral black hole. And in this, Cannibal Holocaust confronts an awful truth.

We spend much of our time avoiding the truth. Psychologists tell us that we create fantasies and dreamscapes to escape them. We subterfuge desire and convince ourselves that we are civilized by building libraries and court houses and creating laws and philosophy. And we reject those things that do not coalesce with our collective assumptions.

Cannibal Holocaust is most awful and unendurable at the moments that it shows us things we are aware of subconsciously but would never want to see and are loath to admit about ourselves and our species. But these things exist. Genital mutilation and honor killings occur. Sexual and economic exploitation are real (and sometimes connected, as they are in the film). We live at a time when religious fundamentalists videotape themselves cutting off the heads of their enemies and broadcast the footage on the internet for all to see. Unscrupulous media hacks cherry pick video clips to distort our view of reality. Such things are not defeated by illusions of hope.

From time to time, an artist, either by accident, madness, or intent, creates a work that violates our collective assumptions. From Marquis de Sade to Bret Easton Ellis, there are those who create pieces of art that aren’t merely incendiary, but attack the most cherished and sacred illusion of all: the spiritual and moral development of humanity. Ruggero Deodato accomplished this in Cannibal Holocaust and his film is simultaneously profound and obscene. And that tension is exactly why I think it merits a place at the table, even if—or because—its appetite is exclusively for flesh and blood.

American Psycho
First released in 1991, American Psycho was the third novel by author Bret Easton Ellis and the book was a source of controversy before it was ever published. The novel American Psycho includes very detailed descriptions of women being tortured and murdered and when pages including these descriptions were leaked, they caused an uproar. Enraged feminist organizations protested the book before it was even on the shelves and convinced Simon & Schuster to drop the project. Vintage Books picked up the manuscript and published it in paperback form. After its publication, author Bret Eason Ellis was the recipient of death threats and the book became a prop for demonstrations, such as when a protestor entered a bookstore and poured blood on copies of the novel.

Although there were various efforts to mount a movie adaptation, American Psycho was considered un-filmable until screenwriter Guinevere Turner and co-screenwriter and director Mary Harron took on the project for a film that was released in 2000.

American Psycho was a moderate box office success although its take was far less than a lot of film released before and after such as Scream or Saw.

The film had mixed reactions from critics. Most of the reviews were positive, such as Roger Ebert who wrote, “Christian Bale is heroic in the way he allows the character to leap joyfully into despicability; there is no instinct for self-preservation here, and that is one mark of a good actor.”

Negative reviews criticized the film for being as vacuous as the characters it was condemning. Stephanie Zacharek of Salon wrote, “If 'American Psycho' worked better as a thriller or a comedy or some combination of the two, its reason for existing would be much easier to explain. As it is, the picture seems to exist solely for self-congratulation, as a kind of sacred text designed to remind us (as if we could ever forget) how ridiculous we all were some 10 or 15 years past -- and to toll a half-hearted warning, in darkly comic tones, that we may be headed that way again.”

Since its release, American Psycho’s legacy has been aided by a few factors. One of them is the rise of Christian Bale to movie star status which he has done primarily on the success of his Batman pictures with Christopher Nolan. Another is the media environment of postmodern satire that we now live in. Cable channels like Comedy Central have made irony their major export with programming like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and online entertainment like funnyordie.com has created a market for self conscious work.

The legacy of American Psycho has also been aided by events in the world of economics and politics. Historical films, whether they are placed in the distant past or recreate recent episodes, are made in order to parallel and comment upon current events. The collapse and bailout of Wall Street, scandals involving corporations like Enron and Halliburton, and the corruption of government institutions like the Department of Interior under the Bush administration, have made this film immediately relevant again. Patrick Bateman surrogates have been and are running things and the extreme interpersonal violence that the fictional character commits is a metaphor for the institutional violence that is wrought on the lower and working classes.

At the same time there is another cultural dimension in which American Psycho is again relevant. The 1980s were characterized by an emphasis on bodies and physical perfection. Although this has never really gone away, the plethora of messages selling us bodily improvement and perfection, from mail order diet plans, to reality television programs, to pharmaceutical sexual enhancement, is at a level never seen before. American Psycho is a story about a character who constantly rips and tears through the superficial layers of name brand clothes, inedible designer food, and finally human flesh. Patrick Bateman’s rage at the vacuity of his existence is a reaction to a state of 1980s culture that corresponds to our contemporary consumer culture.
Ten years after its original release, American Psycho’s message about superficiality is as on target as ever. In 2000 it was a film ahead of its time and now that our age has caught up with it, it’s time to revisit Patrick Bateman and consider what this story has to say.

Supplements for "Cannibal Holocaust" Screening

2010-10-23T18:37:00.000-07:00

I have made two items related to the screening of Cannibal Holocaust publicly available.

First is the audio from the panel discussion that followed the screening. The panel includes Nick Ozment and Andrea Wood of the Winona State English Department and they discuss the controversy of the film and how to evaluate and understand it. You can download the audio file here.

Second, I have published an essay about Cannibal Holocaust on Winona360.org. In the essay I explain why I screened the film and why I think this is an important movie. Here is an excerpt:

Cannibal Holocaust is not troubling to the audience for any one charge made against it, but for its cumulative effect. The barbarity of the animal killings, the display of economic and sexual exploitation, and the parallel acts of violence craft a vision of humanity darker than the stories of Joseph Conrad or William Golding. There is a totality to its nihilistic presentation of humanity that stamps out hope.

When a viewer watches a horror film, he or she intentionally submits him or herself to trauma. Most mainstream horror films like Jaws or Psycho scare us and thrill us but in the end leave viewers knowing that good has triumphed over evil and all is right with the world. More challenging horror films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or The Hills Have Eyes do not offer quite the same solace of a closed resolution but generally there is a survivor who we can empathize with and whose self preservation is a source of relief. These films have a cathartic effect on the viewer, allowing him or her to experience terror and fear from the safety of the theater seat or the living room sofa and then walk away to carry on with his or her life.

Cannibal Holocaust refuses to engage in this kind of pattern. It piles on the awfulness and as the rapes and murders accumulate, the film abandons all unwritten agreements of propriety between the filmmaker and the audience. For those who expect to see a liberal humanist notion of human decency emerge from the darkness, the film offers a moral black hole. For those who demand a meaningful resolution where death is not in vain, the film offers none. And for those who want to preserve hope in humanity, Ruggero Deodato cinematically gives his audience the finger. In short, Cannibal Holocaust tells the truth.

Thank You

2010-10-19T00:41:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who came to the Cannibal Holocaust screening. The program was well attended and everyone at it was well behaved despite the difficulty of the subject matter.

Additional thanks to Andrea Wood and Nick Ozment of the Winona State University English Department for agreeing to participate in the panel discussion. Audio of their remarks during the discussion can be heard on Sounds of Cinema this Sunday, October 24th.

Cannibal Holocaust Screening October 18th

2010-10-17T16:14:00.000-07:00

Remember that your chance to attend a free screening of Cannibal Holocaust occurs tomorrow, October 18th, at 7pm in Science Lab 120 on the Winona State University campus. A panel discussion about the film will follow.

Please keep in mind that the screening is limited to viewers over 18 years of age.

More information on the film and the screening can be found here.

Contribute to the KMSU Pledge Drive

2010-10-06T17:46:00.000-07:00

89.7 KMSU FM is currently broadcasting its fall pledge drive. Those of you who listen to the station, either directly or from 91.3 FM in Austin or 91.9 FM in Fairmont and Albert Lea, please consider contributing.

KMSU is dependent upon listener support to function. This station is an important part of the campus and the community. Your donations allow the station to continue to function so that we can keep the programing coming to you.

To make a pledge, please call 507-389-5678 or 1-800-456-7810. You can also pledge online here.

This Sunday, October 10th, Sounds of Cinema will broadcast a special pledge drive edition of the show on KMSU. Those listening on 89.5 KQAL FM in Winona will hear the regularly scheduled episode.

Navajo Oral History Project - October 8

2010-10-04T18:07:00.000-07:00

There will be a reception for the Navajo Oral History Project at 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 8th, in the Science Laboratory Center at Winona State University.

The program will include the premiere of four short documentaries produced by WSU Mass Communication Department students and students at Dine College on the Navajo Reservation.

The event is free and open to the public.

"The Shining" and "Friday the 13th"

2010-10-03T11:29:00.000-07:00

Today's episode of Sounds of Cinema examined a pair of horror films released just weeks apart in the spring on 1980: The Shining and Friday the 13th.

The Shining represents the last gasp of a certain kind of horror film that hasn’t really been seen since. In the 1960s, under directors like Alfred Hitchcock, the horror film was considered a fairly respectable genre and throughout the 1970s Hollywood studios had financed high profile, star driven horror pictures like The Exorcist, The Omen, and Jaws. After The Shining, the genre gave way to the low budget thrills of Friday the 13th and its imitators. The Shining is paced less like a rollercoaster ride and more like a psychological study of madness and as a result, the film is stylistically anachronistic even for 1980 when the film was released.

The Shining was not well received upon its release. Critics considered it inferior to Kubrick’s accomplishments on films like Spartacus, 2001: A Space Odyssey, or Dr. Strangelove. This may have been unavoidable due to the fact that it is a horror film, placing it a genre that critics are loath to admire, and the impenetrable nature of the mystery and Kubrick’s intellectual style were off-putting. Variety wrote, “The crazier Nicholson gets, the more idiotic he looks. Shelley Duvall transforms the warm sympathetic wife of the book into a simpering, semi-retarded hysteric.” Fans of the Stephen King novel were upset by Kubrick’s abandonment of the book and King himself later confessed a great disappointment with the film. King later produced a made-for-TV remake of The Shining that aired in 1997.

The Shining was nominated for Razzie Awards for worst actress and worst director for films of 1980. Yet, the film has survived and even thrived. Filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, Sydney Pollack, and William Friedkin have praised the film and it has become a popular film for scholars to analyze. In 2001, The Shining was ranked 29th on AFI's '100 Years...100 Thrills' list and the character Jack Torrance was named one of the greatest villains on the AFI's '100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains' list.

Viewing The Shining three decades after its original release, the film is still harrowing viewing. Whatever the faults of the film, and it certainly does have its shortcomings, The Shining is an excellent example of the use of visuals and sound and at its best the film manages to put a face on evil that is as interesting as it is frightening.

Like The Shining, Friday the 13th was received negatively by critics upon its release but unlike The Shining its reputation with critics has never recovered. At the time of its release, Friday the 13th was protested by critics such as Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel who used their syndicated television program to attack the film makers for creating it, Paramount for distributing it, and recognizable actress Betsy Palmer for participating in it. Friday the 13th and its contemporaries and imitators were also a target of feminists who saw slasher films as misogynist and by social conservatives who objected to the sex and violence of the films. Releasing Friday the 13th was also a controversial decision among stockholders and executives at Paramount who were not proud of the film and saw it as tarnishing the history of a studio that had put out classics like The Godfather.

Friday the 13th was a trend setter, as it inspired a wave a slasher films made by independents and distributed by major studios. And this new business model had major repercussions. To compare, The Shining cost $19 million but made $44 million in its domestic theatrical run. The original Friday the 13th cost about 500 thousand dollars to make but made $5 million in its opening weekend and grossed $40 million in its theatrical run. The cost-to-profit ratio alone made slashers good business sense and they dominated both the horror genre and American film at large for the decade. This business model would pay off a decade later as independent films like Reservoir Dogs and Clerks were found major distribution deals.

Although the aggressive marketing campaigns that accompanied the theatrical releases of Friday the 13th deserve a lot of the credit for their box office success, the continued popularity of these slasher films has been largely fan driven. Friday the 13th has thrived in ways that The Shining never could primarily because of a devoted fan base. Like fans of Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings, the fans of Friday the 13th have responded to this series, despite its faults, and invested time and energy into coordinating conventions and maintaining websites. And in their efforts the fans have ensured that this little film will be remembered for decades to come.

Sounds of Cinema October Programs 2010

2010-10-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

As has been tradition on Sounds of Cinema, the month of October will be dedicated to Halloween-related programming. In years past, each October episode had taken broad approaches, with each show taking on subgenres or periods of films. This year will be a bit different. The year 2010 marks significant anniversaries for quite a few important films and throughout this year's batch of October episodes, Sounds of Cinema will take a close look at a few particular movies.

October 3 - Friday the 13th and The Shining
Released within weeks of each other in the spring of 1980, Friday the 13th and The Shining came from completely opposite ends of the film making scene. Since their release, both of these film have become classics of the horror genre and represent both the beginning and end of respective eras of the American horror film.

October 10 - Psycho and Peeping Tom
Psycho and Peeping Tom were released in 1960 and the two films are remarkably similar in their examination of psychologically disturbed characters. Although both films are now considered important entries in the horror genre, Psycho was tolerated by the critical establishment while Peeping Tom was not and the failure of the film critically and financially ended director Michael Powell's career.

Update: Those listening to the show from 89.7 KMSU FM in Mankato will hear a special pledge drive edition of Sounds of Cinema on October 10th.

October 17 - Bride of Frankenstein and The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Throughout the 1930s and 40s, Universal Studios released an entire catalogue of horror films such as Dracula, The Wolf Man, Frankenstein, and all of their sequels and spin offs. Widely considered among the greatest of these films is Bride of Frankenstein. Influenced by Bride of Frankenstein as well as many other monster films of the 1940s and 50s, Rocky Horror Picture Show was released in 1975 to a disastrous reception but in years that followed it became the ultimate cult film.

October 18 - Film Screening: Cannibal Holocaust
A public screening of Cannibal Holocaust will be held at 7pm in Science Lab Auditorium 120 (between Pasteur and Stark Halls) on the Winona State University campus. Admission is free but no one under 18 will be permitted to see the film. A panel discussion will follow the screening. Find out more about the film and the screening here.

October 24 - Cannibal Holocaust and American Psycho
This episode will take on two films known for their controversial material. Released in 1980, Cannibal Holocaust quickly became one of the most widely censored films of all time. Its highly realistic scenes of human murder as well as actual footage of animal cruelty were cause for protest and even legal prosecution. In years since, the film has gained renewed relevance as a commentary on documentary films and the exploitation of developing cultures by industrialized cultures. In 2000, director Mary Harron adapted Bret Easton Ellis' novel American Psycho, probably the most controversial piece of literature in the last quarter of the 20th century, into a commentary on the culture of greed of the 1980s. On the tenth anniversary of the film's release, that commentary has found renewed relevance.

October 31 - Lucifer Rising
Lucifer Rising was one of the final films by experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger. His production of Lucifer Rising was complicated by rivalries and disasters big and small. This episode will include the complete score for Lucifer Rising composed by former Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: "Cannibal Holocaust" Coming to Winona

2010-10-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

As a part of this year's October programming, Sounds of Cinema is sponsoring a public screening of Cannibal Holocaust on the Winona State University campus at 7pm in Science Lab 120 (between Pasteur and Stark Halls) on October 18th. A panel discussion featuring WSU faculty will follow. Admission is free. Due to the content of the film, no one under 18 years old will be admitted.

You can find more information about the screening and the film here.

Halloween is Coming . . .

2010-09-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

October is upon us again and that means Sounds of Cinema is in Halloween mode. This year I have some special programs planned and a big announcement is immanent so stay tuned to the show, the website, and Facebook.

One matter of house keeping: this October I have some special episodes planned that will make reviews of new theatrical releases impossible to include in the weekly show. However, I will continue to provide audio of current reviews on the Sounds of Cinema myspace page and to the website Winona360.org and the Minnesota Morning radio program on KMSU FM in Mankato. Full text versions of recent reviews will also appear on the website.

Blockbuster: The End of an Era

2010-09-24T02:42:00.000-07:00

After months of speculation, Blockbuster Video has filed for bankruptcy. This isn't necessarily the end of the video rental chain, as it plans to shut down some stores and reorganize, but it is officially the end of an era.

Back in the early 1980s, when the VHS format first became popular, locally owned video rental stores popped up all over the nation. Selection in these locally owned stores varied depending on the owner's means and tastes, and consumers had to familiarize themselves with each rental store's unique selection, which might vary from mainstream Hollywood films to obscure B-movies to hardcore pornography.

At that time, it was standard business practice in the home video industry to price VHS titles at about $80 upon their initial release and then reduce the price to a figure more consumer friendly several months later. This gave rental stores a unique window in which they were the sole providers of the newest and most popular titles.

Into this environment came Blockbuster Video. Backed by oil money, Blockbuster aggressively built stores and bought out competitors. With deep financial resources, which got deeper after Blockbuster was purchased by Viacom (which owns Paramount) in the early 1990s, the chain was able to stock its stores with many copies of the most popular titles, despite the cost of new releases.

But Blockbuster didn't merely fill in the front half of the supply and demand paradigm. The company shaped what that supply looked like by refusing to stock porn, pictures rated NC-17 by the MPAA, or controversial titles like Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. And as the local competitors fell by the wayside, the public's access to films was largely determined by what titles Blockbuster and Viacom were going to promote. As time went by those titles were less likely to be independent or foreign pictures and more likely to be the latest Hollywood studio star vehicle.

Blockbuster also shaped its supply in another way. Video stores like Blockbuster were a new way of experiencing films and brought them to a new audience. This increased access to film helped to shape the next generation of filmmakers who would later reinvigorate American film in the mid-1990s. Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarantino were actually video store employees and their films and understanding of cinema was shaped by the home video experience.

When DVDs arrived in the late 1990s, the game changed. Following a similar aggressive business formula as Blockbuster, Wal-Mart had stamped local competitors out of business and built a string of Wal-Marts, Super Wal-Marts, and Sam's Clubs all over the nation. And when the decision was made to immediately price DVDs to own rather than to rent, these two retail giants found themselves in direct competition, with Wal-Mart taking an edge. Blockbuster no longer had its exclusive window on home video entertainment and Wal-Mart was able to offer huge discounts on DVDs prices.

Things got worse for Blockbuster through the 2000s. The internet changed commerce and online services like Netflix offered a wider selection of DVDs than any Blockbuster retail operation. Ironically, online operations allowed a return to the kind of obscure selection that many original video stores had offered. This, along with competition from Redbox and other financial and economic problems, spelled the end: the end of video stores in general and Blockbuster's dominance in particular.

There are reasons to cheer the end of Blockbuster. For the anti-corporatist, Blockbuster represented one of the most blatant examples of deliberate manufacturing of public taste and the corporate takeover of the cinematic art form. And as Blockbuster went on, the store became less and less about providing a wide selection than it was about a deep selection; that's to say, the store offered literally hundreds of copies of the newest Hollywood studio release but gradually pushed independents or other competitors out of the store and therefore out of the public's access.

But there are also reasons to shed a tear for Blockbuster's decline. The store provided a physical place where film geeks could gather and brought cinema to the masses in ways that theatrical distribution never could. It also allowed movie goers the chance to preruse the shelves in a given genre and discover titles they had never heard of before. That organic, community experience cannot be replicated by a streaming service or a kiosk.

But now we're at the end. Even if Blockbuster continues to operate retail stores, it will have to be in a limited way. For better or worse, the future of film distribution will be online. And the way we experience films will never the same.

Robert Rodriguez's Bad Ass Song

2010-09-13T19:48:00.000-07:00

I've written a new essay for Winona360, which can be found here.

Timing in art isn’t everything but it is a lot. Release a film too early, like Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing in 1989, and it is considered cynical and hyperbolic. Release a film too late, like 2010’s Green Zone, and it just confirms what everyone already understands or assumes. But if the right film comes out at the right moment, that film has the ability to dramatize the debates occurring around water coolers, on talking-head television shows, and in political stump speeches and play out those ideas and arguments to a conclusion.

Last weekend I went into the local movie theater and witnessed such a film. Not only was it one of the most entertaining films of the year, but its political insight was so sharp, its satire so biting, and its cultural relevance so immediate that in years to come it may be considered a time capsule of this era. And no, I’m not talking about The American, the very skillfully made but disappointingly vacant film starring George Clooney.

I’m talking about Machete.

Yes, that Machete: the film that began as a joke in the form of a three-minute mock trailer that opened the 2007 Robert Rodriguez-Quentin Tarantino double feature Grindhouse. Rodriguez’s little joke was arguably more popular than the two-and-a-half hour extravaganza it was attached to, and a feature length version of Machete has now opened in theaters. And it is the bloody and chaotic rollercoaster ride that the original trailer promised.

But underneath the trashy exterior there is some serious satire at work. Machete tells the story of a Mexican day laborer (Danny Trejo) who is contracted to assassinate a Senatorial candidate (Robert De Niro) campaigning on a hard line anti-immigration platform. Double crossed by the people who hired him, Machete goes on a quest of bloody revenge and discovers a web of corruption linking his intended political target with anti-immigrant border patrols and Mexican drug cartels.

Had Machete been released a year ago, many elements of the film might seem implausibly exaggerated. But with Machete coming out in the context of drug-related violence at the Mexico border and Arizona’s “Show Me Your Papers” law, to say nothing of the underlying racism that has poisoned the discourse on everything from immigration to the controversy over the proposed New York mosque, Machete’s political satire is frighteningly on target. (See this article at The Daily Beast by Bryan Curtis for a detailed description of Machete’s political relevance.)

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the film to most accurately portray the immigration debate would be a relatively low budget action picture. Mainstream Hollywood dramas are often a few paces behind the issues of the day, in part because of the time it takes to produce and release a film, but also because Hollywood incessantly waits and looks both ways before crossing the street, and even then market researches and test screens films into inoffensive sludge.

Machete follows in a tradition of genre pictures that fulfill the expectations of their audience while also managing to tap into the cultural zeitgeist. In much the same way that George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead skewered mindless consumerism or Planet of the Apes represented race and class conflict of the 1960s, Machete has its grip firmly around the immigration issue. And just as The Dark Knight and Minority Report addressed the War on Terror and its related topics in more interesting ways than “issue” pictures like Rendition or Syriana, Machete makes a more interesting statement about racism and immigration than Crash or Babel.

That’s not to say Machete is a perfect film. Far from it. Machete suffers from too many characters, constantly weaving between various storylines that are mostly underdeveloped. Steven Seagal, who plays the lead heavy of the film, is not given enough screen time and the ending is simultaneously bloated and abrupt, bringing all the characters together for a loud, machine-gun-firing and saber-wielding finale, but it doesn’t quite give the characters a meaningful conclusion.

But at some level the chaos of Machete’s ending is in its favor. In a symbolic way, the anarchic quality of the conclusion is indicative of the very messiness of the immigration issue. And because it does not pretend to be Babel or Syriana or Crash or any other piece of pretentious Oscar bait, Machete’s flaws are more forgivable and its scope, satire, and ambition are easier to appreciate.

Exploitation movies, as their name implies, generally aren’t taken seriously. Even films that now enjoy significant critical adoration like Foxy Brown or Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song were largely dismissed at the time of their release. But the independent market, when it isn’t hijacked by mainstream studios pursuing Oscar gold, continues to be a vibrant source for American movies. This corner of our cinema—including the part of it dismissively labeled as “exploitation”—continues to provide audiences with authentic and audacious films that have much more to say about our times than two hundred million dollar movies about giant killer robots or ostentatious political dramas intended to highlight celebrity activism.

30 Years of "The Empire Strikes Back"

2010-08-11T23:56:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, August 15th, Sounds of Cinema will commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back with a special episode entirely dedicated to the film. Throughout the hour I will play selections from John Williams' score as well as excerpts from the DVD commentary track featuring Empire producer George Lucas, director Irvin Kershner, actress Carrie Fisher, and sound designer Ben Burtt.

Articles on 3-D

2010-08-08T18:30:00.000-07:00

Based on these three articles, things may not be looking good for the 3-D format.

Chris Hewitt has written this piece for the St. Paul Pioneer Press on the disorienting effects of 3-D films.

This piece by Gloria Goodale from the Christian Science Monitor tries to account for the lack of box office on this summer's 3-D films.

And this piece by Michael Cieply of the New York Times tells of a growing backlash against 3-D from audiences and filmmakers.

I'm not sure if this is a sign of an actual shift or just a series of articles jumping on a critical bandwagon. I suspect that if the upcoming films continue to do poorly, or at least do not make enough to justify the extra expense of shooting or converting into 3-D, the format could be restrained to only major releases.

What Oliver Stone Actually Said . . .

2010-08-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

There has been some controversy over Oliver Stone's recent interview with the U.K. Sunday Times. While being interviewed about his upcoming documentaries South of the Border and The Secret History of America, Stone made comments that critics have claimed were anti-Semetic. Here is the excerpt from the interview, including what Stone actually said:

[Stone] constantly researches, thinks, reads: at one point he even asks me if I can do him a favour and help with the "Israelis and the bomb", after a recent conversation he had with Ken Livingstone in which the former London mayor suggested that the British knew that Israel had the bomb "as early as the 1950s". "Could you go into the archive at The Sunday Times and see if you can find anything about the British being involved with a shipment of heavy water ..." he says, dropping his voice. Sure, I say.

His next task, the leviathan Secret History of America, tackles received versions of events in the last century, an extension, perhaps, of what he did in 1991's JFK, when he suggested that the president's assassination was in fact a highlevel conspiracy. The 10-part documentary will address Stalin and Hitler "in context", he says. "Hitler was a Frankenstein but there was also a Dr Frankenstein. German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support."

He also seeks to put his atrocities in proportion: "Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30m."

Why such a focus on the Holocaust then? "The Jewish domination of the media," he says. "There's a major lobby in the United States. They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has f***** up United States foreign policy for years."

Stone has since apologized (twice) for the remark, saying, "In trying to make a broader historical point about the range of atrocities the Germans committed against many people, I made a clumsy association about the Holocaust, for which I am sorry and I regret."

But after reading the actual content from the Times, compare it to these second-hand summaries of his remarks:

From The Huffington Post:

Oliver Stone urges us to see the positive side of Hitler and Ahmadinejad, while imitating his two heroes by railing against Jewish control of the media.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Stone promised that his new series would put "in context" and "show empathy" for people many Americans hate, like Hitler and Stalin. In an interview with London's Daily Telegraph, Mr. Stone said that Jewish deaths during World War II had to be viewed "in proportion," since "Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people."

From Hollywood News.com:

Stone was reportedly explaining his choice to focus on the Holocaust with his latest project when he stated it was because of “the Jewish domination of the media.” He then continued to comment, “They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington,” a statement which has gotten him into trouble with the Anti-Defamation League, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

From E! Online:

Controversial conspiracy theorist extraordinaire (and sometime director) Oliver Stone briefly waded into Mel Gibson territory this week when he claimed Jews controlled the media and that Hitler, in retrospect, maybe wasn't such a bad guy after all. But he has one thing Mel doesn't—a public sense of remorse for his "clumsy" words. Well, either that or a really good publicist.

From Worst Previews:

Director Oliver Stone (Wall Street) has been stating that Hitler is neither good or bad and that since Jews control the media, they have been able to vilify him and make it seem that it was only the Jews who died during the Holocaust.

From Chicagonnow.com:

The same cannot be said, however, for Oliver Stone who just last weekend launched into his own anti-Semitic rant. Coverage of Stone's outrageous comments, arguably as bad as Gibson's, has been met with a virtual shrug from the Old Media, especially the TV newsers.

Although Stone's comments were certainly clumsy, some of these press reactions are effective examples of news and social media actually making things worse with sloppy summaries.

Fish Frye at Mid West Music Fest

2010-07-28T12:26:00.000-07:00

Mid West Music Fest will be held in Winona, MN from July 30th - 31st. Over eighty music groups from the region will be participating, playing at various venues in the Winona area.

Fish Frye, the official band of Sounds of Cinema, will be playing on Saturday, July 31st on the Winona State University grounds at 4:30pm.

You can find out more about the Mid West Music Fest, including schedule and ticket information, here.

Populist and Elitist Film Criticism

2010-07-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

As a follow up to my previous post, here is an analysis of a rift between "elitist" and "populist" film criticism, embodied, respectively, by Armond White of the New York Press and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times. Things got ugly recently when White claimed that Ebert destroyed film criticism while Ebert has labeled White an Internet troll. Writing for Moviefone, Jack Matthews describes the difference between them and how that difference shapes their response to films and each critic's relationship to the audience:

The critics may quibble over those labels, but for this discussion, an elitist is a critic who believes his primary responsibility is to educate readers so they may better understand the film medium while a populist, using his knowledge and tastes, sets out to explain his responses to films. One assumes the voice of authority, the other assumes the voice of a confidant.

White is a classic, unapologetic elitist and one of the few to ever work for a general interest or mainstream publication. For good reason: As White's editors are being constantly reminded, the inherent insult to readers' intelligence by White's approach is risky business. His haughty, theoretical approach is the stuff of academia and film journals.

On the other extreme, there couldn't be a greater symbol of populism than a thumb being aimed up or down in judgment. If all popular criticism followed that example, White would be right in saying that Ebert destroyed film criticism. A simple up or down vote on any subjective issue obliterates all nuance, which is the essence of criticism.

One one hand, White certainly has a point. The abundance of amateur and online film criticism has created a surplus of voices (and I'm aware of the irony of writing that on a blog). And although it is great to see all of this enthusiasm for discussing film, the quality of many of those voices is questionable - just look at any message thread on IMDb.

I have some things in common with White both in education (we both have MFA degrees) and in critical aim (to educate readers about film and make them better consumers). But at the same time, I think its important to temper our expectations as film goers, which is where populist perspectives come into play.

But populist perspectives have their own pitfalls. With so many viewer's cinematic knowledge extending only as far back as the previous summer, the public's critical perspective is very shallow. A solely populist approach would not allow for films that are challenging or different and encourage endless sequels and spin offs.

To use a recent example, The Sorcerer's Apprentice is not The Godfather, but it isn't trying to be either. If we eat at McDonalds we shouldn't be surprised when we get fast food and there is no point in complaining that the dish is not gourmet cooking. But, to continue with the analogy, if all we eat is fast food then we might not be able to tell the difference. In reviewing a film like The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the critic ought to identify the film for what it is and evaluate it on its own terms but at the same time maintain a broad enough critical perspective to distinguish between disposable entertainment and cinematic art.

What We Can Learn From the Critical Reaction to "Inception"

2010-07-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

Here is an article from the Los Angeles Times about the critical reaction to Inception. The first reviews to come out were extraordinarily positive, ranking Inception among the great Hollywood films of all time like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Vertigo. But later reviews were not nearly as positive. It's an open question whether these critics were reacting negatively to the film or reacting to the overwhelmingly positive response by their contemporaries and competitors. From the article:

Too much early buzz can stir contrarian feelings in those who see it later — even perhaps rigorously independent critics. "Any individual critic is going to say they're evaluating the movie on its own terms," O'Hehir says. "But I think in the aggregate this larger phenomenon does come into play, especially with a Chris Nolan or Jim Cameron [writer-director of "Avatar" and "Titanic"] who can divide critics. I don't know if it's conscious or unconscious, but I think there is this thing where some of us go into a movie spoiling for a fight."

This kind of evolving reaction is not new, and the article points to a long standing tradition in critical media to assess and then reassess a film over time and with the Internet, the process moves faster. (Here is a link to a similar article from The Daily Beast about fan reactions to Avatar.) But there are a few important points to this that audiences should bear in mind:

Don't listen to just one film critic. In times like these, when a dollar is hard to come by, audiences are going to spend their cash more selectively and will use film critics to help them make the best choices. If someone listens to just one critic, they might miss out on a film that is otherwise getting favorable reviews. This is why, on my show, I give my review but then I summarize what other critics are saying based on the score at the Rotten Tomatoes website.
Ask yourself about the source. Just like everyone else, individual film critics like or dislike certain kinds of films or believe that cinema should do certain things or appeal to certain ideals. For example, horror films don't do well with many mainstream critics because horror is usually contrary to their ideals about aesthetics and narrative. But if you can find critics whose ideals align with yours, then you can make better decisions about viewing choices.
Remember what the purpose of film criticism actually is. Although critics can have a very real impact on box office performance, it is not their job to cause the financial success or failure of a film. A film critic's job is to be a voice of reason, to make the audience think about the entertainment put in front of them and to give viewers some ideas about how to think about it.

I will air my review of Inception on Sunday.

"Social Network" and "Middle Men" Trailers

2010-07-18T18:03:00.000-07:00

Two films about web pioneers are coming out this fall and their trailers make them look remarkably similar.

The Social Network, due out in October, tells the story of the founders of Facebook. The film is directed by David Fincher and stars Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg.

Middle Men, due out in August, tells the story of Jack Harris, a web entrepreneur who helped turn the Internet into a profit machine, primarily through pornography. The film is directed by George Gallo and stars Luke Wilson as Harris. Embedded below is the green band trailer. You can find the red band trailer here (NSFW).

We won't know until the films come out but based on the trailers both pictures seem to have a rags-to-riches premise wrapped around a success-has-its-pitfalls theme. Both have the potential to be provocative and provide some vantage point to the way online communications have changed our culture and ourselves. Here's hoping they deliver.

Predators: Our Only Hope

2010-07-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

Check out this article from the Today Show by critic and fan Dave White, who is looking forward to the new film Predators with a sense of desperation. The essay is a little tongue-in-cheek, but with the overwhelming number of high profile disappointments this summer, White has a point. Here is an excerpt:

I’m glad this time the Predators will be locking horns with humans only. That’s because “AVP: Alien vs Predator” (2004) and “AVPR: Aliens vs Predator: Requiem” (2007) were boring times two. Both films forgot that violence needs to be taking place on screen at all times and that when monsters fight it should be at the expense of all human life around them. These films should fade away, an insult to fans of monster-fighting the world over. I’d sooner watch "Godzilla vs Biollante" again. You know what Biollante was? A giant flower. So, yeah.

But mostly I have high hopes because I just flat-out love monsters. I want the best from them and for them. Aside from the Franken-bird-girl of the unexpectedly cool “Splice,” and aside from “Piranha 3D,” which technically isn’t really a monster movie, “Predators” is all we monster fans can expect from this summer. And in spite of their reputation as mindless entertainment, a good monster movie done well can be beautiful pop art. If you saw the recent Korean movie “The Host,” you know what I mean.

Predators comes out this weekend.

Controversial Films 2010

2010-07-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

In observance of Independence Day, Sounds of Cinema celebrated freedom of speech by examining censored, banned, and otherwise controversial films on today's show. Here is a recap of the films discussed with some links and sources.

300
300, an adaption of the Frank Miller graphic novel, tells the story of the last stand of the 300 Spartans as they fight off an invasion by the Persian empire. A number of critics commented upon the film’s use of fascistic themes and imagery, and some scenes of the film do borrow or imitate the Nazi propaganda films The Triumph of the Will and Olympia, directed by Leni Riefenstahl.

300 was released while tension between the U.S. and Iran was swelling and the film provoked very angry reactions from both Iranian political leaders and citizens. In a country where public opinion and government policy are increasingly divergent, there was a unity between the two fostered by a shared offense to the way 300 demonized and distorted the Persian roots of their culture.

Aladdin
Disney films don’t usually suggest themselves as controversial but a few have raised controversies over the years. Aladdin was protested by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee based on racism and cultural insensitivity.

In the film, Aladdin and Jasmine are depicted as Western and even American; they speak with Western accents and their appearance downplays any Middle Eastern characteristics; Aladdin in particular looks like Tom Cruise. But the villains of the film are all portrayed as angry or conniving Arab stereotypes. Anger was directed at the theatrical version of the song “Arabian Nights,” which opens the film. The theatrical version of the song contained the line, “Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face/It's barbaric, but, hey, it's home"; the line was rerecorded for subsequent video releases and for the re-released soundtrack and changed to "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense."

The Basketball Diaries
This film is an adaption of the memoir by Jim Carroll. It was released in 1995 to no great fanfare but at the end of the decade The Basketball Diaries found itself back in the news following the Columbine High School shootings. The film includes a fantasy sequences where the teenage Carroll, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, enters his high school dressed in a black trench coat and begin shooting students. This image was replayed constantly during the news media’s coverage as politicians and pundits attempted to lay blame for the massacre on heavy metal music, video games, and violent media. Aside from the actual news footage of the event, this clip from The Basketball Diaries, taken without context or regard for its source, was key to shaping how we visualize and think about the massacre even though the clip had little to do with the way the attack actually played out.

Blue Velvet
David Lynch’s film about the sexual perversion lurking beneath the surface of suburbia mixes sexuality with violence, which is always controversial, and some film critics such as Roger Ebert found the treatment of Isabella Rossellini’s character degrading. But the styles and themes of this film have been echoed in a lot of later films such as American Beauty.

Cannibal Holocaust
Cannibal Holocaust was part of a trend of Italian cannibal films from the 1970s and 80s and is one of the most widely banned films of all time. The first half of Cannibal Holocaust follows an anthropologist into the Amazon as he discovers the remains of a documentary film crew that has disappeared and the second half shows what happened to them through the footage that they shot.

Cannibal Holocaust became an instant bombshell upon its premiere. The film features very realistic scenes of the characters being killed and even includes footage of the actors killing animals. The intent was to manipulate the line between what is real and what is not and make audiences think about news and entertainment. As it turned out, it worked too well and the director and cinematographer were arrested because of the cruelty to animals and upon the belief that the actors had actually been killed in the making of the film. As a part of their contract to help with marketing Cannibal Holocaust, the actors had agreed to lay low and stay out of sight and so the lawyers for the filmmakers had to scramble and bring the cast into court to exonerate the filmmakers.

Cannibal Holocaust remains a difficult and challenging film but it is also an important one and in the age of 24-hour news networks, sensational journalism, and reality television it has actually become more relevant.

Here is a video of metal band Necrophagia performing a song based on Riz Ortolani's score to Cannibal Holocaust inter cut with clips of the film.

A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange was criticized for intense violence mingled with sexuality, but the controversy was made worse by supposed copycat crimes in which gangs would recite the song “Singin' in the Rain” while committing violent offenses. After the link between the crimes and film was made public, A Clockwork Orange was yanked from theaters in the U.K. although that decision appears to have been made by director Stanley Kubrick out of respect for the family members of the victims. The film was not available in Britain until 2000.

Do The Right Thing
Sometimes a film is released just ahead of major cultural events that shift our understanding of the world and ourselves. Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing was released in 1989 and some of its observations and commentary about race relations were viewed as gross exaggerations and some critics feared that the film would incite African American audiences to violence, although that never happened. A few years later, the commentary on violence and racial tension was vindicated and even dwarfed by real life events such as the Los Angeles riots and the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

Last Tango in Paris
Last Tango in Paris was among the first mainstream film to get an "X" rating and go out to U.S. theaters with the rating rather than appeal or cut content to achieve an R, although it was cut for later re-releases. It was also the first film to be prosecuted under Britain's Obscene Publications Act although the filmmakers eventually won. In Italy, the film was banned and director Bernardo Bertolucci was given a 4-month suspended prison sentence for obscenity.

Munich
Munich is a fictionalized account of Israel’s retaliation for the murder of Jewish athletes at the 1972 Olympic games. Based on George Jonas' book Vengeance, the film encountered a troubled reception upon its release, in part because the reliability of Jonas’ book was questioned. But what hurt the film primarily was how it was perceived in regard to the Israel-Palestine issue. Munich drew a polarized response in the worst way; some saw the film as an anti-Israeli picture, such as the Zionist Organization of America, which called for a boycott. On the other side, Munich was dismissed as yet another film depicting Palestinians as terrorists. As a result, no one from either camp went to see the film or if they did, they perceived it through an ideological lens that skewed or ignored the complex moral and political questions that Munich presented.

Natural Born Killers
The films of Oliver Stone have consistently caused political rancor but by far the noisiest response occurred over Natural Born Killers, a notorious satire of media sensationalism and violence. The film has been criticized for becoming the very thing that it was satirizing. I think the film works more than it doesn’t and it is still a fascinating film to watch. In the opinion of director Oliver Stone, the compromised theatrical cut is actually more violent because the excesses featured in the director’s cut version make the absurdity of the film more apparent. There were a number of copycat murders linked to the film and novelist and sometime lawyer John Grisham actually led a civil suit against the filmmakers but lost.

Passion of the Christ
I would guess that more ink was spilled attacking and defending this film than any other since the turn of the century. Most of the controversy was based on accusations of anti-Semitism but I’ve never felt that these accusations were convincing.

I do have issues with the film being violently pornographic – the film festishises torture. To illustrate the point, consider a sex scene in a dramatic film. In that case, the scene is part of an ongoing narrative context. That context gives the scene meaning beyond the act itself. When you pull the scene out of that context, then it becomes about the act. In this case, the film isolates the torture and execution of Christ, with an emphasis on the gore, and no context about Christ’s life or his message is given. While it’s true that a lot of Christian viewers will bring that context with them, in evaluating the film we have to stay within the boundaries of what the film presents, and The Passion does not provide context for anything.

Here is a panel discussion on the controversy over The Passion of the Christ:

Patton
The film Patton had unique circumstances for its release. The film tells the story of controversial General George Patton and was released in the midst of the Vietnam War. Those in favor of the war effort saw Patton as a patriotic and pro-war film but those in the antiwar camp viewed Patton as a satire and this great general as an anachronism. This of course led to very positive reception on both sides, which naturally translated into critical and box office success.

The film Patton has incurred controversy in the ensuing years. The film was supposedly a favorite of Richard Nixon, who screened it repeatedly at the White House and would watch it before making difficult decisions related to the Vietnam War. According to some, Nixon identified with Patton as he is presented in the film and after viewing it decided to go ahead with the bombing of Cambodia.

The screenplay for Oliver Stone’s 1995 film Nixon actually included a scene in which Nixon watches Patton and then makes his decision to bomb Cambodia. The scene was never shot because George C. Scott refused to allow a clip from the film to be used.

Scarface
This is a remake of the 1932 film, which was also controversial at the time of its release. Brian De Palma’s remake of Scarface ran into trouble from the beginning of its production. The film was initially to be shot in Miami but when allegations spread among the Cuban community that the film would be a pro-Castro or anti-immigrant story, locals made trouble for the production company and forced them to relocate.

Scarface was submitted to the MPAA three times but they refused to give the film an R rating. Eventually the producers arranged a hearing in which they brought in a panel of experts, including psychiatrists and narcotics officers, to argue stated that the film was an accurate portrayal of the drug underworld. The producers won. However, De Palma felt that if the third cut of the film was judged an "R" than the very first cut should have been an "R" as well. He asked the studio if he could release the first cut but was told that he couldn't. But since the studio executives really didn't know the differences between the various cuts that had been submitted, De Palma released the first cut of the film to theaters anyway.

Scarface was not a big success at the box office in its theatrical run and was treated harshly by critics; Brian De Palma was nominated for a Razzie award for worst director. But over time the film has gained a grass roots following and is now considered one of the greatest gangster pictures of all time.

South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut is an adaptation of the Comedy Central television series. The film is a political satire and a parody of Disney films and according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the film contains 399 curse words and 199 offensive gestures inside of its 81-minute running time. The story includes Saddam Hussein as Satan’s homosexual lover and supposedly Saddam was forced to watch the film while he was in the custody of the American military. The song "Blame Canada" was nominated for an Oscar for best original song.

The ratings process of South Park was rather interesting. According to filmmakers Matt Stone and Trey Parker, they submitted the film to the MPAA and received an NC-17 but instead of cutting out offensive material, they put more in and resubmitted it. The ratings board again gave them an NC-17 and Parker and Stone again put more offensive material into the film. This went back and forth and after six screenings the MPAA apparently gave up and approved an R-rating.

Sources

Alternative Reel: Top 10 Banned Films of the 20th Century

AMC Filmsite: “Most Controversial Films of All Time” by Tim Durks (Includes images not safe for work)

Entertainment Weekly: "The 25 Most Controversial Films of All Time." Issue #882 June 16, 2006.

The Guardian: Torture, necrophilia, and a very naughty boy: the films that shocked us

critical-film.com: The Complete Video Nasties List

Premiere: The 25 Most Dangerous Movies Ever Made

This Film is Not Yet Rated (DVD)

Wikipedia: List of banned films

Yahoo Movies: 5 Most Controversial Films of the Decade

Celebrate Freedom on Sounds of Cinema

2010-07-01T01:56:00.001-07:00

This Independence Day weekend, tune into Sounds of Cinema for a look at banned, censored, and otherwise controversial films. Some of the pictures discussed include Cannibal Holocaust, Scarface, South Park, Natural Born Killers, and more.

Cinematical: Do You Care How Your State is Presented in Film?

2010-06-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

Cinematical features this article on how various states have been consistently presented in film. According to the article, perceived negative portrayals have seen push back from some state governments. An excerpt:

Meanwhile, Texans are concerned about the political and violent themes of Robert Rodriguez' Machete, especially since that controversial Cinco de Mayo trailer that bashed Arizona's new witch-hunt-like immigration law. Florida also recently had some controversy regarding its attempt at censoring film productions, which was viewed as against homosexuals. Other states merely frown upon movies that are or might be deemed pornographic (or simply rated NC-17). But the people of these states aren't so much worried about the tourism industry; they mostly just don't want their tax dollars to go towards films they disagree with.

Compared to New York, California, or Texas, Minnesota and Wisconsin do not have nearly as many films set or shot here. But for those that do, the tendency is not to portray Minnesotans and Wisconsinites as dangerous and full of drug dealers and murderers (Wisconsin's many serial killers notwithstanding) but as beer drinking, gun toting, religion clinging idiots. Consider North Country, Fargo, The Great Outdoors, Grumpy Old Men, Milwaukee, Minnesota, and New in Town.

Ben Wardinski to Co-Host Sounds of Cinema

2010-06-09T00:18:00.000-07:00

Ben Wardinski, my younger brother, will be the special co-host of Sounds of Cinema for the episode airing on June 13th. Tune in for music from Back to the Future, Dumb and Dumber, and more.

Why Rambo Matters

2010-05-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

The year 2010 marks significant anniversaries of some of the greatest and most memorable films of all time: The Empire Strikes Back and Raging Bull are thirty, Five Easy Pieces is forty, Psycho is fifty, and Bride of Frankenstein is seventy-five. These are some serious cinematic heavyweights with awards and other critical accolades to their credit. But there is another film, which is celebrating its silver anniversary: Rambo: First Blood Part II.

First Blood Part II didn’t win any Academy Awards; the Best Picture Oscar for films of 1985 went to Out of Africa. But First Blood Part II did take Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture, Actor, and Screenplay. With the amount of effort and emphasis placed on the Hollywood awards circuit, we would expect the Oscar winner to be enshrined in cultural immortality and the Razzie “winner” to sink into obscurity. But, twenty-five years later, nothing could be further from the truth. While Out of Africa enjoys a healthy level of popularity, it is First Blood Part II that is played as a part of marathons on American Movie Classics and other cable television channels. It is First Blood Part II that is referenced as recognizable parody (the surest sign of cultural influence) in Hot Shots Part Deux, UHF, and Son of Rambow. And it is First Blood Part II that continues to stir the emotions of its viewers, who vent their love or hatred of the film in online message boards.

For those unfamiliar with the film, First Blood Part II is a follow up to 1982’s First Blood. Picking up a few months after the events of the original, decorated Vietnam veteran John Rambo is sent on a covert mission to photograph American prisoners of war still being held in Vietnam. When Rambo exceeds his mandate and engages the Vietnamese, he is abandoned and must fight his way out of the jungle.

Is First Blood Part II a good movie? Perhaps, in its own way it is. But that’s really beside the point, which is that First Blood Part II is an important movie. I would go so far as to argue it is among the most important movies of the last twenty-five years.

First Blood Part II stands out in several ways, not the least of which is its impact on filmmaking itself. The picture set a new standard for possible (and acceptable) body counts, the level of property destruction, and how the hero—and by extension the audience—should think and feel about that human and material devastation (in that we don’t). Later action films like Die Hard, Bad Boys, Braveheart, Black Hawk Down and even Avatar owe their style in whole or in part to First Blood Part II. To put it another way, First Blood Part II made possible every picture Michael Bay ever made.

Secondly, First Blood Part II is among the essential films of Reagan-Bush era. The film dramatizes one of the major conservative pillars of the post-Vietnam period: that the war was just and winnable but was lost by the bureaucrats. Rambo’s annihilation of the Vietnamese prison camp and rescue of the POWs in spite of the establishment is a fantasy of wish fulfillment to compensate for defeat in Vietnam and the film and the character embody the rehabilitation of America’s self-image throughout the 1980s; a superhero as a metaphor for a superpower. Like many fantasies, it is irrational, has little or nothing to do with reality, and is embarrassing to behold when held to the light. But like in a dream, our fantasies act out our desires and First Blood Part II fulfilled that desire.

Another funny thing about fantasies, especially those on film, is the way that they can shape our expectations and actions in life. First Blood Part II, along with the action films of the 1980s staring Chuck Norris and Arnold Schwarzenegger, normalized unilateral, maverick military action and cast it as patriotic. It is too much to say that First Blood Part II and its contemporaries bear responsibility for the United States’ military interventions in places like Granada and Afghanistan throughout the 1980s; that would be like blaming school shootings on video games. But when academic debates are abandoned for contests of brute strength, superiority is measured by shooting accuracy, and moral authority is inherently possessed by one side over another as opposed to being earned, nurtured, and maintained, a culture surrenders its ability to think critically about itself. And this is precisely what First Blood Part II encouraged.

But why do First Blood Part II and the Rambo character matter for the twenty-first century? Consider these two examples.

In 2007, the comic book adaptation 300 was released in theaters. The film shows significant influence from First Blood Part II with its exaggeratedly staged violence, shirtless and muscled out heroes, and the theme of fighting for freedom. At the time of the film’s release, the United States was preparing to escalate the war in Iraq with a troop surge. Dramatizing the last stand of the three hundred Spartans as a conflict between the democratic and civilized Greek (read: Western) civilization and a barbaric and theocratic Persian (read: Middle Eastern) civilization, the film played right into the arguments of those who would redouble the war effort. Whether or not the filmmakers behind 300 intended to do this is irrelevant; this is the context into which the film was released and it functioned that way within the culture.

A year later, Sylvester Stallone returned to his character in the fourth film of the series, simply titled Rambo. Set in Burma, Rambo rescues a group of Christian missionaries who have been captured by the country’s military junta. Rambo is banned in Burma but pirated copies have found their way into the country and the film has circulated underground. Those who are caught viewing it face imprisonment and those who distribute the film risk their lives. One of Rambo’s lines from the film, “Live for nothing or die for something” became a rallying cry among the Karen resistance fighters. At the time of Rambo’s premiere, Mark Farmaner, Director of the Burma Campaign UK said, “By setting Rambo in Burma, Sylvester Stallone has done more than governments or the United Nations to draw attention to the crisis going on out of sight in the jungles of Eastern Burma.”

We tend to think of action films like the Rambo pictures as sort of silly diversions with no real artistic or social value. And in some cases they are. But film and popular entertainment can not only draw attention to an ongoing social issue but actually shape our perception of it, for good or bad, and thereby shape our reactions to it. This is why movies are important and why it is important for us, as the consumers of cinema, to think about the entertainment that is being sold to us.

A Look Back At Rambo for Memorial Day Weekend

2010-05-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

For Memorial Day weekend, Sounds of Cinema will take a look back at the entire Rambo series, from 1982's First Blood to 2008's Rambo and consider the political implications of the series as well as its impact on war and action films.

Here's a look at the trailers from the films:

First Blood (1982)

Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

Rambo III (1988)

Rambo (2008)(Green Band Trailer)

Rambo (2008) (Red Band Trailer)

Update:
Just for fun, here is the trailer to the UK film Son of Rambow (2007).

Bret Easton Ellis on The Informers

2010-05-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

Bret Easton Ellis, one of my favorite authors, sat down for a series of interviews with Movieline about the film adaptations of his books. In this interview, Ellis discusses the recent adaptation of his novel The Informers. The film was regarded by a disaster by most critics (it ranks fourteen percent fresh at Rotten Tomatoes) and Ellis is candid about the film's failure.

An excerpt:

But you were involved with it the whole time, weren’t you? You were a producer on the film.
I was involved until the writer’s strike hit, and that banned any writers from visiting the set. Everyone followed that rule because everyone was really scared about what might happen. So, I was involved with The Informers until about a week or two after filming [began], because I was on set rewriting scenes. Then when the writer’s strike hit, I was told I could not go back on that set or I would be…whatever. Whatever happens to writers when they do that.

There are some writers who thought that was sort of a boon because the scripts couldn’t be rewritten during the strike. The dialogue had to be performed exactly as written, with no modifications.Right. But then half the scenes I wrote ended up on the cutting room floor anyway. Half the movie is on the cutting room floor.

The most notable cut was to the vampire storyline. Brandon Routh had been cast as the mysterious Jamie and all his scenes are totally gone from the movie, although there are still some loose ends there where you can tell those scenes would have linked up.The vampire subplot is gone, yeah.

What would be the rationale for cutting that? If anything, I would think it’d make the movie more interesting.I believe there was a concern about an NC-17 rating.

It was that explicit?There was a lot of sexuality mixed with violence. I think there was a prestige factor involved — like, I think they thought they had a shot at making an Oscar movie if they concentrated on the main families and their stories. To have a guy who thinks he’s a vampire committing all these terrible crimes, it put it into the horror/cult genre. And then they said it was budgetary, that they just didn’t have the movie to really shoot those scenes.

You can also check out Ellis' thoughts on the film adaptation of American Psycho, ten years after the release of the film.

NPR on the Appeal of "Troll 2"

2010-05-19T11:50:00.001-07:00

NPR has published this article on the ongoing appeal of 1980s B-horror flick Troll 2 and the new documentary, Best Worst Movie.

[Troll 2,] with its cadre of vegetarian monsters turning victims into plants so they could eat them, was understandably never released in theaters. And when Stephenson became a filmmaker himself, he might simply have joined his fellow actors in leaving it off his resume.

George Hardy, the real-life dentist who played Stephenson's dad, for instance, stopped flashing his pearly whites at movie cameras entirely. But then Hardy's patients started saying they'd seen him In a video called Troll 2.

And then people started calling him to say he was on TV.

"Just stop watching it right now," he'd tell them with a laugh. "It gets worse!"

But that, as Best Worst Movie details, was before the discovery that his embarrassing little horror movie has developed a cult of followers who find the film flat-out hilarious — fans throwing Troll 2 parties, beer-powered midnight screenings and such. A piece in The New York Times leads Hardy and Stephenson to a Manhattan screening, where they find a mob scene, as fans greet them with the fervor more mainstream crowds might reserve for De Niro and Scorsese.

Here is a famous clip from Troll 2, popular on Youtube, that gives a sense of the film's flavor.

"Field of Dreams" For Sale

2010-05-13T13:38:00.001-07:00

From the Winona Daily News:

The owners of the Iowa site where the ``Field of Dreams'' movie was filmed have put the place up for sale.

Don and Becky Lansing say they love the land, which has been in Don Lansing's family for more than a century, but they think its time to give it up.

The movie, released in 1989 with Kevin Costner as its star, was based on the book ``Shoeless Joe'' by W.P. Kinsella. The site has been a popular tourist destination ever since, with the family maintaining the baseball diamond built by Universal Studios.

The Lansings haven't listed a price for the baseball diamond, two-bedroom house, six outbuildings and 193 acres.

I hope that the field remains there since it is a popular tourist stop and it is nice to have that link between the Midwest and Hollywood. Perhaps the film is old enough and significant enough that a case can be made for protecting it as a historical landmark.

Sounds of Cinema Time Change in Winona

2010-05-10T19:16:00.000-07:00

Sounds of Cinema will be moving to a new time at 9:00 am Sunday mornings on 89.5 KQAL FM in Winona beginning May 16th.

The show will remain at 11:00 am on 89.7 KMSU FM in Mankato, Minnesota.

Commentary on Horror Remakes

2010-05-09T16:41:00.000-07:00

Here is the extended commentary on horror remakes from today's show:

Subsequent to my review of the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street, I wanted to speak a bit more about the recent trend of horror remakes.

Those who listen to this show or have followed the program on the web are probably aware of my fondness for horror films, particularly horror of the 1970s and 80s. Admittedly some of this is nostalgia; I’m a product of the 1980s and characters like Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees loom as large in the pop culture background of my childhood as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader or Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus. Of course, unlike Star Wars and Sesame Street, I wasn’t allowed to watch R-rated horror films when I was a kid, but I found a way to do it anyway.

But my interest in the horror films of this period is not all about sweet memories of sleepovers spent watching movies that I was not supposed to be watching. Looking at cinema as pieces of art in American culture, the horror pictures of the 1970s and 80s, at their best, were daring countercultural statements. Films like Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes took on the anxieties of post-Vietnam America and Halloween, The Stepfather, and A Nightmare on Elm Street launched an attack on the social values of the Reagan-era. These movies were savage and experimental; they broke barriers and were unlike anything horror audiences had seen before.

Flash forward thirty years and almost every notable title from the period has been remade. And with a few exceptions, such as Rob Zombie’s Halloween, nearly all of them suffer from the same faults: the filmmakers transplant the horrors of a previous decade into a contemporary context without updating what made these films scary or relevant.

To be fair, remakes are not inherently bad nor are they anything new. In 1962, MGM released a remake of the 1935 film The Mutiny on the Bounty and the remake is arguably a better film. Alfred Hitchcock remade his own film, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and made one of the best pictures of his career. Martin Scorsese adapted the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs into his Oscar winning The Departed. And of course characters from comic books and literature like Batman and Sherlock Holmes have been imagined in various incarnations in film and television, occasionally with great success.

Within the horror genre, remakes have been very common. Dracula and Frankenstein have been revisited and reimagined literally hundreds of times. Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left was an unofficial remake of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring. Many slasher stories were inspired by urban legends like “The Hook Man” and many of the sequels to slasher films were essentially remakes of the originals with a number following the title.

Despite this history, remakes rarely get a fair shake. Comparison to earlier versions is inevitable, with critics often assuming the supremacy of the original without taking the newer film on its own terms. Online fanboys and fangirls, who can be the most self-righteous, film snob, crybabies of all time, have made things worse with hyperbolic claims comparing remakes to sexual assault. This kind of emotional reaction to remakes is often based in nostalgia, as we link pop culture artifacts to treasured moments in our lives, conflating them together to the point that they are indistinguishable, and then disdaining the newer versions for reminding us that we are getting old. And while that is understandable, it makes for lousy film criticism.

But the filmmakers producing remakes haven’t done themselves any favors. Most fundamentally, these remakes just aren’t very scary and that is mostly due to their execution. To create an atmosphere of dread and terror requires a very skilled filmmaker. Inspired by the thrillers of Alfred Hitchcock, the original Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and some of their sequels showed a mastery of using lighting, staging, and pacing to build sequences of horror that eventually climaxed in a shocking moment of violence. The filmmakers behind these remakes appear much more influenced by the action films of Michael Bay and so the remakes contain a lot of quick edits that destroy the tension and rely on a clamoring soundtrack to elicit jumps rather than building up to a climax.

Beyond the shortcomings of craft, there is a deeper problem with a lot of these horror remakes. It is hard to find any films that viewers will talk about in ten, twenty, or thirty years from now. It is true that some of these films are made with higher production values and better actors; the case in point would be the 2009 remake of Last House on the Left which updated the low budget original with some really beautiful visuals and a few strong performances. But there is nothing about the remake that is memorable and even less that links it to the period in which it was made. The result is a generic piece of work that does not justify its own existence.

These remakes are really a natural extension of what happened to the slasher genre in the late 1980s. In the latter years of the decade, most of the independently produced slashers—movies like Maniac or The Prowler—disappeared or were relegated to direct-to-video obscurity, with the major franchises like Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and Friday the 13th remaining. These films were turned into brand names and their killers became spokespersons and mascots for the products that their corporate owners were selling. Freddy, Jason, and Michael were attached to toys, model kits, videogames, Halloween costumes, and all other manner of merchandise. But when the audience stopped going to the movies and stopped buying the tie-in products, the films faded away.

The crop of recent horror remakes, reboots, and reimaginings is a continuation of that marketing scheme. These films have a very finished look about them, but where their inspirations hit a cultural nerve by getting to something organic, the remakes come across as plastic. Even though the remakes are almost always bigger and bloodier than the original, they are also very much a Hollywood product: safe, tame, and commoditized.

And that is antithetical to what horror is all about. Horror, like comedy, relies on surprise and the reversal of expectation, the opposite of what a prefabricated studio film provides. Horror’s strength is in the genre’s ability to go to the places that other films will not, to show us the things that polite society and mainstream entertainment cannot deal with. Horror is actually dangerous because it traffics in subjects that are not safe or tame. This was true when Euripides wrote The Bacchae, it was true when Charles Brown wrote Edgar Huntly, it was true when George A. Romero made Night of the Living Dead, and it continues to be true when Rob Zombie made The Devil’s Rejects.

The filmmakers behind many recent horror remakes have failed to understand this and turned out movies that have little bite. It didn’t have to end up this way and thankfully we’ll always have the originals.

In evaluating this recent span of horror remakes, in most cases the originals were better, but they were better for the time in which they were made. Dragging Freddy and Jason into a decade where they do not belong, where the things they represent are no longer immediately relevant to the culture, makes them an anachronism. And unless future remakes address this issue, the result will be a continued dilution of what made these characters and their stories interesting in the first place.

Phillips: Stop Remaking Horror Films

2010-05-02T17:57:00.000-07:00

Prompted by the new version of A Nightmare on Elm Street hitting theaters this weekend, Keith Phillips has written this piece for The Daily Beast on the trend of horror remakes. Phillips argues (and I agree with him) that the real trouble with horror remakes is not so much their reuse of familiar characters and scenarios but that these films transplant the bogeymen of a earlier era into contemporary cinema but do not adapt them to reflect, embody, or comment upon the anxieties of contemporary society. An excerpt:

But mostly, horror remakes just look lazy because, well, they are lazy, dragging yesterday’s monsters into a world they’re ill-equipped to scare. Though imitated to exhaustion, the technology-wary films of the Japanese horror cycle (the original version of The Ring, for example) and the torture porn sub-genre—particularly Eli Roth’s Hostel films—have roots that sink deep into millennial anxieties. Most rehashed monsters never even touch the ground.

Salon article on "The Killer Inside Me"

2010-04-28T16:42:00.000-07:00

Check out this Salon article by Andrew O'Hehir on The Killer Inside Me, which recently screened at the Tribecca film festival. This film has created quite a stir at Sundance for the film's scenes of violence against women. You can find the NSWF trailer here.

The Salon article includes this quote from Casey Affleck, the lead actor of the film, as part of a defense of film:

Casey Affleck discussed the picture's aims admirably. "I hope there's room for discussion around this film, and room for people to tell us we're being irresponsible," he said. "But to me, irresponsible is when you have a movie where 300 people get killed by robots, and none of it matters, none of it registers. In this movie, we wanted the violence to seem real, and the victims of violence to seem real. I think we've been very responsible in how we approached the violence. I wouldn't have done the movie otherwise."

The Killer Inside Me will be released later this year from IFC Films.

Ghost-Directors

2010-04-25T22:30:00.000-07:00

Check out this article on films ghost-directed by people other than the person credited. A lot of this is rumor, although the article features links backing up its claims.

I would dispute the claims on Poltergeist, given that Steven Spielberg is known to be a hands-on producer, Tobe Hooper is a distinguished horror director (as opposed to the lesser known directors of other projects on the list) and in the eighteen years since the film's release Hooper still maintains that he directed it.

An interesting case is made for A Prairie Home Companion, which is credited to Robert Altman (as his last film) but may have actually been directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. From the article:

The influence that director Robert Altman had over Paul Thomas Anderson can be clearly seen when you put the likes of Nashville and Magnolia side by side. Altman was 80 years old and in a frail state when he tackled what would turn out to be his final film, A Prairie Home Companion, and apparently unable to undertake much of the physical side of directing a film.

Reports around the time of the film's production suggested that Anderson was ultimately brought on board to ghost direct the film. Thus, the suggestion was that Altman watched what was happening on monitors and gave out orders, but that Anderson was tackling the hands-on work, and dealing with the actors themselves.

Other reports argue that, as is quite common with directors of advanced age, Anderson was actually on stand-by to take over the film if Altman couldn't. As it stood, Altman got sole directing credit for the film, in line with DGA rules.

"Texas Chainsaw Massacre" in Winona, MN

2010-04-21T20:29:00.001-07:00

UPAC will be showing the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre on the Winona State University campus on Thursday April 29th at 9pm. The screening will be held outside the student union, so bring a blanket or a lawn chair.

Joe Johnston Hates Pre-Visualization

2010-04-19T16:46:00.000-07:00

Joe Johnston, director of Jurassic Park 3, The Rocketeer, and the upcoming Captain America, has published an editorial on 30ninjas.com in which he describes his dislike for previsualization (or previz for short), which is usually a cheap animated version of story boarding of scenes to be shot later on set. The idea is to be able to give the cast, crew, and post-production workers an idea of what the finished sequence will look like. But as Johnston writes, the process also has a way of killing the creativity on set.

I hate previz. I’ve never used it, and I will never use it. I didn’t use it on The Wolfman, and I won’t use it on Captain America. Hate it. Previz tells the crew this is exactly what you want, and I think it’s much more of a crutch than anything else. It sends a message to the crew that you’ve worked out all of your problems, you’ve had your meetings and you’ve figured out exactly what you want to do, and here’s the movie, take a look. But nothing could be further from the truth. It’s a sequence that was created in a computer, and it has no relation to what it’s going to be when you’re really out there, on location, on a stage, with real actors who are hitting their marks and saying their lines. It’s completely useless. There are visual effects people who will say, “Gee, we’d better previz this so we know exactly what we’re doing,” and I tell them to go ahead and waste money on previz because you need it to understand the elements of the sequence — for instance, identifying at what point you’re going to duplicate the army or create set extensions — but don’t show it to anybody and say this is what the director wants. Never.

It's ironic to hear this from Johnston, since he is a protege of George Lucas, who has been a champion of previsualization and used it quite extensively on the Star Wars prequels. But Johnston's objections to the process do help to explain the flatness and lack of visual flair of many computer-generated action scenes.

Salon: Unproduced Screenplays by Intellectuals

2010-04-14T19:37:00.001-07:00

Salon features this article from Elif Batuman on unproduced screenplays by famous writers, politicians, and thinks such as Vladimir Nabokov, Winston Churchill, and Jean-Paul Sartre. I found this possible screenplay by Georges Bataille interesting:

In 1944, the French writer and philosopher Georges Bataille, the so-called "metaphysician of evil," decided to write a "commercial" film starring Fernandel, a singer-comedian particularly famous for his horselike teeth. In a departure from earlier roles, Fernandel was to play a bourgeois Marseilles soap manufacturer who, during his children’s holidays, assumes the costume and character of the Marquis de Sade. With the participation of some local prostitutes, he reenacts the practices described in "120 Days of Sodom," Sade’s novel about four scientific-minded libertines who lock themselves for months in a medieval castle, subjecting forty-six innocent young people to escalating sexual torture, culminating with murder. When the soapmaker’s experiments likewise result in the death of a prostitute, he commits suicide, effecting "the triumph of morality." After approaching one producer, who was not encouraging, Bataille abandoned the script, which has been lost to posterity.

This is a fundamental difference between literary or intellectual pursuits and film; cinema inherently limited in its ability to present complex ideas because it has to do them visually and aside from experimental or art house cinema, it is difficult to find audiences or even funding for high minded projects.

89.7 KMSU Spring Pledge Drive

2010-04-01T18:19:00.000-07:00

Starting today, 89.7 KMSU FM "The Maverick" will begin its spring pledge drive, in which listeners are encouraged to support the station with a financial donation. Please consider supporting KMSU. There are challenging economic times, especially for higher education, and your donations ensure the continuity of the station and prove to Minnesota State University that KMSU is a valued part of the community.

To make a pledge please call 507-389-5678 or 1-800-456-7810 or go to the "Contact Us" page at www.kmsu.org/.

This Sunday, April 4th, Sounds of Cinema will feature a pledge drive show on 89.7 KMSU FM. Listeners on 89.5 KQAL FM will hear a repeat of the Quentin Tarantino show (#253).

Apology from Screen Writer of Battlefield Earth

2010-03-28T12:45:00.000-07:00

Last month, Battlefield Earth was given the "award" for Worst Film of the Decade by the Razzies, and now J.D. Shapiro has written an open apology for the film in which he recounts how the film came about and his experience with scientology. An excerpt:

My script was very, VERY different than what ended up on the screen. My screenplay was darker, grittier and had a very compelling story with rich characters. What my screenplay didn't have was slow motion at every turn, Dutch tilts, campy dialogue, aliens in KISS boots, and everyone wearing Bob Marley wigs.

Shortly after that, John officially attached himself to the project. Then several A-list directors expressed interest in making the movie, MGM had a budget of $100 million, and life was grrrrreat! I got studio notes that were typical studio notes. Nothing too crazy. I incorporated the notes I felt worked, blew off the bad ones and did a polish. I sent it to the studio, thinking the next I'd hear is what director is attached.

Then I got another batch of notes. I thought it was a joke. They changed the entire tone. I knew these notes would kill the movie. The notes wanted me to lose key scenes, add ridiculous scenes, take out some of the key characters. I asked Mike where they came from. He said, "From us." But when I pressed him, he said, "From John's camp, but we agree with them."

I refused to incorporate the notes into the script and was fired.

Reading this makes me thinks that a movie about the making of Battlefield Earth could be hysterical.

The End of Cult Movies

2010-03-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

Matthew Belinkie on Overthinkingit.com has written this piece about the end of cult movies. Specifically, Belinkie writes about the way Generation X experienced cult movies: mostly through video stores and interpersonal networking. Today, with online streaming sites, a lot more films are available, but the effort to find them is a lost art. An excerpt:

I love movies, and I love having them at my fingertips. But something has been lost. Part of being a movie geek is priding yourself on seeing the obscure stuff that lesser geeks and mere mortals don’t bother with. This used to be challenging. Today, a movie can have cult status because only a small group of people like it… but not because only a small group of people have access. Finding the movies is never a challenge (finding the time to watch them is another story).

But what I really miss is the sense of community. Back in the day, the best way to expand your movie-going horizons was to find friends with the same passion, and borrow, trade, and share each other’s collections. There’s even an episode of The Simpsons where Bart and Milhouse discover Comic Book Guy’s secret room of bootleg videotapes, and make serious money by charging admission to screenings. I have totally been to parties like that. The episode aired in 2001. Less than five years later, it was completely obsolete. Nowadays, Comic Book Guy’s random clips wouldn’t be on VHS tapes--they’d be all over YouTube. And the people of Springfield would watch them at home, alone.

There is some irony in this. In the early 1980s, when home video first appeared, cinema owners and some theater-goers bemoaned the end of the midnight movie and the drive-in. And while there are still a few drive-ins and midnight screenings that survive on nostalgia and curiousity, it is unlikely that the same kinds of copy-and-swap networks will continue, at least not in person.

At the same time, there has been a resurgence of interest in cult films from Killer Klowns from Outer Space to episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000. There is also the deliberate attempt to manufacture cult films (with mixed success) in movies like Grindhouse and Repo: The Genetic Opera. It's fitting that a culture that has embraced irony would find joy in films that are often poorly made and enjoy them specifically for that reason. I think it speaks to a resistence to the very polished but often soulless product of the digital age.

There is a further consequence that has yet to work itself out. The major directors that came out of the New Hollywood era (from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s) were products of films schools and had experienced cinema in a theater primarily viewing Hollywood studio films and European New Wave cinema. The major filmmakers from this period--Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and George Lucas--reflect the films they were influenced by and how they watched them in the work they produced: The Godfather, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Taxi Driver, and Star Wars. The next generation of filmmakers, coming into directing chairs in the 1990s--Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Darren Aronofsky--had been educated about film through the video store market and their films reflect that influence: Reservoir Dogs, Clerks, and Pi.

As filmmakers of the Millennial generation take their place behind the camera, they will have consumed films in theaters and on DVD (which has its own peculiarities of deleted scenes, alternate cuts, commentary tracks, and other extras), and over the web. They will also have experienced the fragmentation and mini-storytelling that began in the 1980s with music videos and has now been extrapolated into short pieces on video tube sites. And the means of filmmaking have been made so accessible that these videos can be shot on their cell phone and edited on a laptop.

I don't know if any of this is good or bad, although I can identify with Belinkie's nostalgia. Film is a medium in constant motion; its tools are ever evolving. Hopefully the result will be an increase in the richness of cinema as it becomes a much more democratic artform.