Well, I guess I gotta get going on my formative 10 because what has taken me almost eight months, has taken D’Arcy Norman all of three days. I find it interesting how much a formative 10 can tell you about someone, for example given D’Arcy’s first three films it’s pretty obvious he’s a science nerd Now me, kinda like Uli, I’m a nihilist, and it is, indeed, exhausting.

Escape from New York is a no-brainer for the formative 10, this movie may very well be the most perfectly conceived plot ever filmed, and it is without question my favorite film storyline of all time. Interestingly enough, John Carpenter is responsible for two of my formative ten, this one as well as the The Thing (which I recently blogged). Moreover, Assault on Precinct 13 would have been a shoe-in for the formative 15 and I blogged it as a kind of preview to this series many moons ago. It’s interesting that this exercise has brought into sharp focus just how important John Carpenter has been in my early years of film watching, and I’d just like to thank him for helping to make me such a huge fan of the form.

So, what now? I could talk about how cool Isaac Hayes was as the Duke of New York or how much I dug the terrorists that hijacked the Air Force 1 at the beginning of the film or how Harry Dean Stanton’s role as Brain remains one of his most memorable for me (”Unless you know exactly, precisely where it is…”) or even the crazy haired sidekick to the Duke of NY who hisses in a most peculiar way. I could do all this, and I haven’t even gotten to Snake Plissken yet. Or, I could show you a series of clips that capture the essence of this film. So, OK, dim the lights and get ready for some YouTube, roll ‘em please:

The voice over (which is Jamie Lee Curits) at the beginning of the film sets up the situation brilliantly.

And here is the hissing maniac that shows off the President’s finger (love this guy!):

Scene wherein Hauk (played by the immortal Lee Van Cleef, the ultimate badass) recruits Snake for the mission to rescue the President from the prison that is Manhattan Island:

There’s the scene where the cannibalistic Mole People come out of the ground and grab Season Hubley, this was possibly the most memorable scene of the whole film for me at the time.

The Duke of NY (A#1) (played by the late Isaac Hayes) doing a little target practice with the President of the US (played by Donald Pleasance who is genius in this film, I might add).

Couldn’t find the scene of Brain (played by the legendary Harry Dean Stanton, perhaps my favorite actor of all time) on YouTube I wanted, so I will settle for when he stabs the crazy-haired hissing freak (the character is actually named Romero).

And there are many many more scenes in this film that make it simply amazing. In fact, I believe that it is still one of the best paced and consistently compelling action films ever made. Escape from New York, arguably Carpenter’s best, and maybe the last truly great American film ever made

I was a hardcore Star Trek geek as a kid. Who wasn’t, really? Captain Kirk going all maverick on the galaxy, finding cool new planets, and nailing hot alien babes. Space is cool! I think I watched every episode at least a couple dozen times - yay syndicated reruns - but for some reason it’s the first motion picture version of the franchise (released in 1979) that really affected me.

V’Ger.

Holy crap. The Voyager space probe, damaged and worn. And pissed off, looking for its creator.

So, we fire off some probes into space. We don’t have the technology to really track them, or communicate with them. 300 years later, one is found by a mechanical civilization, and taken in as an injured entity. Repaired, as well as it could be, then sent home. Hindsight makes it pretty clear that this is at least the precursor to the Borg storylines - mechanical civilizations, attempts to communicate with them, etc…

It brought up all kinds of issues that have nothing to do with science fiction - do we have a responsibility to the things we create? What does it mean to be “the creator”? What does this mean with respect to religion, theology and belief in general?

The effects in the movie are completely laughable - the psychedelic optical effects are stunningly lame compared to the film resolution digital effects of today - but the premise of the movie struck me as profound. Our actions have consequences - they may be far in the future, far away, in ways unimaginable to us now, but our actions have consequences.

Of course, the movie franchise has been mind-blowingly inconsistent. Basically, the even-numbered movies were pretty good (KHANNNNNNN!!!!! KHAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!), the odd-numbered movies pretty much sucked, but they all feel like bubblegum pop filler. V’Ger was a game changer though.

After thinking about Quest for Fire, I realize that another of the most formative movies for me was 1984’s The Iceman. The body of a prehistoric man was found frozen in ice, but still alive. He’s placed in a zoo-like containment room at an arctic research facility (filmed in Churchill Manitoba, no less) where he can be studied. Another fascinating movie, not because of special effects or high budget, but because of story. Any movie involving a prehistoric man singing along to Neil Young has to be OK…

The movie was about alienation. About belonging. About finding out who you are, and where you need to be. It was about human nature. It was about fear. And mythology. It was about standing up for what you believe in. And also a little about anthropology.

I remember watching and rewatching this movie several times, mesmerized by the details. And knowing that a high budget version of the movie would have lost almost everything that made this movie great.

Inspired by Jim’s description of one of his 10 formative movies, I realized that one of the movies that’s had the most impact on me is Quest for Fire. The 1981 Canadian anthropological movie about 4 separate tribes of homo erectus, neanderthal and homo sapiens, and their interactions.

I remember being absolutely fascinated by the movie, watching it dozens of times (it was one of the early movies offered on our fancy new SuperChannel Cable Movie Channel when I was a kid). I haven’t thought explicitly about the movie in years, but have realized that it’s really affected me by helping to viscerally see and empathize with the various cultures depicted.

Quest for Fire was so powerful to me, because it was so real. It didn’t feel like fiction. It felt like what we would now call embedded reportage. Following the story, without shaping it. (of course the story was shaped - it’s a work of fiction - but it doesn’t FEEL like a work of fiction) It made anthropology, evolution, natural selection, adaptation, and so many other concepts clear and alive.

It showed how science isn’t a separate thing - it is the world around us. It is us.

I just bought the movie, and have been waiting for it to finish downloading from iTunes so I can rewatch it. Looking forward to it!

That was then….

….and this is now (actually last week at the NuArt theater in LA–my favorite!):

Stephen Geoffreys delivering his classic line from Fright Night (1985).

I have a longer post, a kind of “opus” tracing the impact of the VCR on b-movies during the 80s. I’ll save the details for later, but while doing my extensive research I came across a gem from the past: TerrorVision. I re-watched it again last night, and I had totally forgotten the Grandfather (played by the great Bert Remsen) was a survivalist. He had his own bomb shelter and artillery room built into the basement of the home, and he was pushing a survivalist campaign for sustainable food, namely eating lizard tails given they will always grow back. And early moment of survivalism in film, pre-dating the 1987 b-movie The Survivalist and Burt Gummer first appearance in Tremors in 1990.

Anyway, TerrorVision is wonderful 80s camp, an experience I was afforded by browsing the shelves of a local, independently owned video store (the likes of which populated strip malls across America during the 1980s) for the most outlandish cover and tagline. The era of the independently owned video store is all but gone, but its legacy may have made possible one of the greatest periods in variegated film consumption ever known to a generation of waylaid youth. OK, I guess I gotta write the post after that teaser, but until then check out the trailer for TerrorVision, or watch the whole thing on YouTube in 9 easy pieces. Also, the theme song for the movie composed and performed by the Fibonaccis is an 80s gem in its own right.

TerrorVision Trailer

TerrorVision Theme Song

Just watched First Blood (1982) for the first time in many years in preparation for an upcoming conference presentation. I have to admit I’m not sure if Stallone's final speech is the greatest acting I’ve ever seen, or the worst. You be the judge.

And for a wonderful take on this monologue, check out the Macintalk Fred voice reciting this speech as set to a running series of Caravaggio's paintings —makes it seem like a Shakespearean classic. Brilliant! The clip below is why I love the internet to no end.

As if you need any more proof that the BAM’s film programming isn’t far and away the best out there, check out the just finished Four-Pack of Carpenter series. These folks are good…very, very good! What I would have given to have been in the BAM for eight hours consuming all of this 35 mm magnificence. It’s probably better that Matt “old gold” Gold didn’t tell me until after the fact, cause I would have just been depressed for four days straight.

4-Pack of Carpenter at the BAM

The four films by John Carpenter they showed are Big Trouble in Little China (1986), The Thing (1981), They Live (1988), and Escape from New York (1982). Now, I just got done praising the programmers, and I stand by that, but I for one think Big Trouble in Little China and They Live are kinda weak spots in the line-up. Big Trouble in Little China is one of those beloved Carpenter films (for many a favorite) that I never really cared for or understood why so many people liked it so much. I mean let’s be honest, if you are going to have a small retrospective of Carpenter, the four films would have to be Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, Escape from New York, and The Thing —am I right? Of course I am, Halloween, while not my favorite (that would be an even tie between The Thing and Escape from NY), has to be Carpenter’s most perfect film. It framed the aesthetic, pacing, and camera angles for a whole decade of horror films, and it features unbelievable performances by both Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence. In fact, I watched it yet again recently and remain amazed just how well it stands up in every way, it’s the Carpenter film.

Now, I know They Live is going through a renaissance of sorts as of late and I’m all for it, fun film and a great plot concept with the consumer/message zombie/monster thing. Yet, it pales in comparison to the pure philosophical genus of The Thing, or the brilliant plot frame and post-apocalyptic setting of Escape from NY. In fact, I think Big Trouble in Little China and They Live are lesser Carpenter because they move into the intentionally corny, a facet of his film makiing that by the time we come to a film like Escape from LA renders it unwatchable. Carpenter’s films were always a bit comic book and hokie, it was one of the things I love about all the movies in my 4-pack. It just seems by the time he got to Big Trouble in Little China by the mid-80s the move from horror/sci-fi master to mediocre b-comedy was complete, and the latter didn’t really wear to well on him.

OK, I’ll admit it. This is really just hair splitting, I understand that, I would have gladly gone to all four films with butter-filled popcorn, Coke, and Dots in hand, greedily stuffing myself while consuming the true beauty of 35 mm Carpenter. Such a response may be a result of my intense dejection that I wasn’t at the BAM to witness all this first hand. At the same time, we have to maintain a standard for our b-movies, or else everything just becomes artistic schlock And as an unintentional side effect, this post has helped me figure out my dream job(s): I would run UMW Blogs on the side, and regularly attend and blog every film being shown at the BAmMon a regular basis for the rest of my natural life. That, my friends, would be heaven. Sometimes I miss Brooklyn, but I always miss the BAM Cinematèk (looks like the got ride of the whole Cinematèk thing, and are just going with BAM Cinema now–glad they dropped the elitist European name with accent, this is America damn it! We invented film!!!).

Serena Epstein produced a magical mashup re-contextualizing Little Mermaid by setting it to the soundtrack of the Risky Business trailer for professor Anand Rao’s Visual Rhetoric course. Behold the magic of this brilliant mashup; Ariel is framed in a whole new light!