34 YEARS, 34 FILMS

BY RICK JACKSON

June 2012 marks 34 years since I started as a film critic in Kingston, Ontario. To mark the occasion, I thought making a list of my favourite films, directors and so on. However, I didn't want to lose my perspective of watching movies by making an ultimate list, so I chose to pick 34 movies for 34 years.

Looking over my 50 plus page movie index there were a lot that impressed me. Yes, there were some that didn't, too.

I have been going to the movies since the late 1950s. Being raised on Canadian army bases, the one constant thing I could depend on was the local theatre. It offered me an escape on Saturday afternoons when my Dad didn't want me to help around the house. Sitting in the darkened theatre served as a weekly ritual that I grew to love doing. Little did I know that one day I would be writing about the films. In 1978 I decided to try my hand at film criticism and it wasn't easy at first. I had been reading everything I could about the movies and there were film magazines around that I could buy, such as Films In Review, American Film, Take One, and Film Comment. Only Film Comment still publishes today.

I was determined to come with my own style of writing after reading Time, Newsweek, The Globe And Mail, The Toronto Telegram, The Toronto Star, and The Kingston Whig-Standard.
I didn't like the way movies were being reviewed. There was no sense of analysis or depth in the opinions expressed and, more often than not, the individual reviewers would say too much and reveal what has become known today as "spoiler alerts."
I feel to this day that film criticism should be taken seriously and objectively. It also include aspects of the film such as direction, cinematography, production design, the acting, editing,
and music.

In those early years I used a typewriter to do my reviews until the early 1990s when I switched to the computer. I was working the graveyard shift at a local hotel and during the night I would sit down to type. It also kept me awake. I also read a lot about film and often talked about it just like you do today with friends. Experience all these years later and the quality time spent watching not just the commercial movies but what Sight And Sound claims are the best films ever made and from other resources is what makes a film critic. Anyone can have an opinion about any of the arts, including film. This brings me to the death this week of Andrew Sarris, the dean of film critics, who identified the study of film as an auteur theory in the 1950s.

David A. Cook in his book, A History of Narrative Film (WW Norton & Company, 1981) has the best explanation of the auteur theory and its genesis that began after the Second World War in France. The success of Jean Renoir (Grand Illusion, The Rules Of The Game), Jean Cocteau (Beauty And The Beast), and Jacques Tati (Mr. Hulot's Holiday) led to what director Marcel Opuls later was convinced that cinema would be a subject of study and a separate language and form would differentiate it from other arts like painting.

In France, a younger generation of filmmakers started thinking about the way film was made and its humble beginnings were in the documentary tradition. Alain Resnais, who started out with documentaries, was accorded high praise for his first feature in 1959, Hiroshima Mon Amour.

Roger Vadim contributed to the viability of the French film as a commercial product when his Anmd God Created Woman in 1957 established him. He was part of what became known as the French New Wave which critic Alexandre Astric, in 1948 clearly saw a relationship to film from the viewpoint of the director who assumed responsibility behind the camera and, as a result, became the author. He called it the camero stylo which, in essence, allowed the individual to study film as a form of artistic expression which, in turn, led to a new language as a medium. The director or auteur was hailed by Andrew Sarris as "the auteur theory" and despite what a lot of people said then about it, it still exists in the minds of many critics and film sudents.

In the 1960s, two Canadians, Robin Wood, a professor of film at York University in Toronto and Gerald Pratley who was a film critic at the CBC in Toronto wrote books about certain film directors and they have since become thee authority on them because of their scholarly research and essays in getting anyone who read them a chance to study film in a new direction different from the movieoing experience as entertainment. Wood wrote books about Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, Howard Hawks, and Arthur Penn, while Pratley concentrated on John Huston, Otto Preminger, John Frankenheimer, and David Lean.

Remembering how film study began, one has to acknowledge Andre Bazin and the Cahiers du Cinema in 1951. The early 1950s saw other authors who became directors in their own right: Francois Truffaut (The 400 Blows), Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless), Claude Chabrol and Eric Rohmer. Resnais's influence continued with Last Year In Marienbad (1961) that indirectly influenced in the early 21st century, the film Russian Ark.

Further research will discover the beginnings of studying film and film appreciation in 1936 where Georges Franju and Henri Langlois promoted the study of cinema and cinema culture in France and the rest of the world. Langlois praised the works of D.W. Griffith, Abel Gance, Buster Keaton, Jean Vigo and Jean Renoir which, in turn, led to the study of other directors from other countries, such as Sweden's Ingmar Bergman and Japan's Akira Kurosawa and Yosijuro Ozu.

Today it is common to see film courses at local universities, including Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.

Getting back to my 34 Years, 34 Movies, some of my early reviews were published in The Nomad, the St. Lawrence College newspaper until I wrote a weekly film column in The Heritage Newspaper (now the EMC). They were also published in The Tower Times, the Canadian Forces Base Kingston paper, and Probe Magazine. Today, I reach a larger audience on the radio where I have been reviewing movies since 2000. In 2006, I started this blog.

I have often been asked what my all-time favorite movie is and, to be honest, there is more than one. But to end your curiosity, it is Lawrence of Arabia. When I first saw it after it came out, I fell in love with the movies and have been a big fan of its star, Peter O'Toole.

This fall Sight And Sound will publish its list of the best films ever made according to film scholars and critics from around the world. Every ten years since 1952 it has done this and it will be interesting to see if Citizen Kane is still at the very top. I'm thinking of doing my own list because of all the discussion of the great movies I have heard over the years. It's time to reveal my choices. Watch for it in the fall of 2012.

Right now, here is my list of 34 movies that impressed me over the last 34 years the most. That doesn't mean there weren't others.

In alphabetical order with the country of origin and director's name:

R.W. Fassbinder's Postwar Trilogy (Germany, 1979-1982: The Marriage Of Maria Braun, Lola, Veronika Voss)

The Inuit Trilogy (Nunavut, Canada, Zacharius Kunuk (2001-2008): Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, Before Tomorrow.

Age of Innocence (U.S., Martin Scorsese, 1993)

Away From Her (Canada, Sarah Polley, 2006)

Breaker Morant (Australia, Bruce Beresford, 1980)

Changeling (Canada, Peter Medak, 1980)

Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith (Australia, Fred Schepisi, 1980)

Children Of A Lesser God (U.S. Randa Haines, 1986)

Chocolat (Sweden, Lasse Hallstrom, 2000)

Cinema Paradiso (Italy, Giuseppe Tornatore, 1989)

Color Purple (U.S., Steven Spielberg, 1985)

Cujo (U.S. Lewis Teague, 1983)

Dreamchild (Scotland, Gavin Millar, 1985)

Enemies: A Love Story (U.S., Paul Mazursky, 1989)

Entre Nous (France, Diane Kurys, 1983)

Femme Nikita, La (France, Luc Besson, 1990)

Flowers In The Attic (U.S., Jeffrey Bloom, 1987)

Kid Stays In The Picture (U.S., Nanette Burstein, Brett Morgan, 2002)

Last Temptation Of Christ (U.S., Martin Scorsese, 1988)

Life Is Beautiful (Italy, Roberto Benigni, 1998)

Map Of The Human Heart (New Zealand, Vincent Ward, 1993)

Miller's Crossing (U.S., Coen Brothers, 1985)

Napoleon (France, Abel Gance, Restored Version-1981)

Night Of The Shooting Stars (Italy, Taviani Brothers, 1982)

Passage To India (Great Britain, David Lean, 1984)

Purple Rose of Cairo (U.S. Woody Allen, 1985)

Sophie's Choice (U.S., Alan J. Pakula, 1982)

Tess (U.S., Roman Polanski, 1980)

Time For Drunken Horses, A (Iran, Bahman Ghobadi, 2000)

Tin Drum, The (Germany, Volker Schlondorff, 1980)

Unbearable Lightness Of Being (U.S. Philip Kaufman, 1988)

Unforgiven (U.S., Clint Eastwood, 1992)

Wise Blood (U.S., John Huston, 1980)

Yi-Yi (China, Edward Yang, 2000)

June 23, 2012
Copyright Rick Jackson 2012

DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE (C/FP, 1991)****

BY RICK JACKSON

The first time I saw The Double Life Of Veronique I was impressed by French actress Irene Jacob whose uncommon beauty and innocence captured both characters with utter normalcy, you couldn't help want to see the film again. She received the Best Actress award at Cannes in 1991.

Her plain face and sensual quality of her entire being is what immediately captures your attention.She reminded me of Nastassia Kinski a few years later, but as I think more about The Double Life Of Veronique it is the quiet intensity and intuition of this Polish woman who sees herself in the mirror. As she does, it is as if you are caught in a trance of your own for she is just as captivating as a teacher and singer and your curiosity will inevitably absorb you slowly and inextricably right up to the conclusion.

Director Krzysztof Kieslowski likes to your imagination which he also did in The Three Colours Trilogy (Red, White, Blue). There is a common visual experience. In other words, what the camera wants you to see and pereceive at the same time. What you ultimately end up is an exciting dream where your memory is haunted by what is inside you and in The Double Life Of Veronique, especially, you are drawn into an ordinary experience that becomes an extraordinary one.

The scenes where Veronique sees her own death is equally fascinating and alarming. What makes the film resonate so well is its utter simplicity on every level, from the photography and production design to the consistency of quality of each image which purports to be nothing more than what actually is, i.e. the phone call, a spilt bottle of milk, and the earth and sky. These are things the mind knows is normal but it is the quiet power and verisimilitude of the story's plaintive emotions and inner tensions of inquisitiveness and sexuality that lies underneath the mystery of everything. It can be appreciated as one of the movie's key pleasures and through the pervasive tone of the director's strong direction you almost get to know as much as you are supposed to, learn what normalcy brings to everyday life, and how all of this can be easily affected unilaterally by someone or something.

Jacob consumes both her parts with as little passion as necessary and her absence of feelings and eroticism add a welcome serious touch to the movie's overall impact as the kind of motion picture you don't see often enough.

It is rated AA/Adult Accompaniment, with the warning: mature theme.

The Double Life Of Veronique is playing Wednesday, June 20, at 7 p.m. at The Screening Room.

June 19, 2012
Copyright Rick Jackson 2012

ROCK OF AGES (WARNER BROTHERS, 2012)****

BY RICK JACKSON

With its orgiastic and hard-driving rock soundtrack, Rock Of Ages is destined to become a cult classic. Tom Cruise delivers a mind-blowing and surprising appearance as rock idol Stacee Jaxx.

Set on the Sunset Strip, the screen explodes in song with the actors using their own voices to convey the energetic and near messianic influence rock has had on society for more than one generation.

The main thrust of the plot is set around The Bourbon Room, a popular club run by Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin) and Lonny (Russell Brand). Screenwriters Justin Theroux and Chris D'Arienzo, based on the latter's musical book have come up come up with a contemporary and updated version of The BroadwayMelody of 1929 which focused on the love story between a young girl from the American mid-West and a-song-and-dance man. In Rock Of Ages it is betweenSherrie (Julianne Hough), a girl from the American mid-West, and Drew (Diego Boneta), a bartenderwho meet at the same club. Their sexual tension is initially felt in the song lyrics. Granted their romance is predictable, there is room to appreciate every level of the film's easygoing style to match the laidback acting ensemble.

As you will soon see, this is not another Fame (1980) or A Chorus Line (1985), but an exuberant, classy adaptation of the Broadway musical, Rock Of Ages.

In his second outstanding supporting role in less than a month, Paul Giamatti (Cosmopolis) injects solidarity as Jaxx's personal manager and he adds to an already impressive filmography.

The rest of the cast features Malin Akerman as Constance, the reporter from Rolling Stone, and Mary J. Blige as Justice.

It is in the choreography and editing of the performances, Rock Of Ages generates a newfound excitement. Some of the key songs and singers include Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' I Love Rock And Roll (1982) (Boneta); Foreigner's I Want To Know What Love Is(1984) (Akerman); Quarterflash's Harden My Heart(1982) (Hough); Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead Or Alive (1987)(Cruise), and Guns'n' Roses' Paradise City (1989) (Cruise).

Others you will hear sung are Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar On Me (1988), Sister Christian's Night Ranger (1984), Whitensnake's Here I Go Again (1987) and Poison's Every Rose Has Its Thorn (1988).

Listening and watching, you can't help be swept up in the power of song that has made such movies as Saturday Night Fever (1977), Grease (1978) and Flashdance (1983) so memorable.

Director Adam Shankman (Hairspray) has come up with a film that will leave you on the fast track to a movie high.

It is rated PG, with the warnings: mature theme and language may offend.

June 17, 2012
Copyright Rick Jackson 2012

BOGART AND BACALL

BY RICK JACKSON

Movie buffs have a chance to see on the big screen again, three of the four films Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall made together. It was during the making of To Have And Have Not the two fell in love and this makes their films together a true collaboration, a Hollywood love team. They are at The Screening Room in Kingston.

The Big Sleep (1946) is on tonight at 7 p.m.This is one of my favorite films. The Big Sleep(Warner Brothers, 1946) is a complex detective yarn that you almost have to see several times but if this is your first, go anyway. There is an enigmatic and dramatic thrust that makes it worth seeing again and again.

Based on the novel by Raymond Chandler (1888-1959), it is the character of Philip Marlowe that conveys the idea of the private detective that Bogart played to great effect in The Maltese Falcon in 1941 for director John Huston.

Bogart was not the only one to play Marlowe. There was Dick Powell in Murder My Sweet (1944), Robert Montgomery in The Lady In The Lake (1946) where he is portrayed subjectively as he tells his story in flashback, George Montgomery in The Brasher Doubloon (1947), James Garner in Marlowe (1969), Elliott Gould in The Long Goodbye (1974) and Robert Mitchum in Farewell My Lovely (1975) and The Big Sleep (1978).

Chandler's novel The Big Sleep came out in 1939 and he became famous due to its popularity. Up until then he had written twenty novellas for Black Mask and other magazines.

The genesis of Philip Marlowe came from the author's fertile imagination. He was a character who did not have a name until later.

In the December 1944 issue of Atlantic Monthly he explained how he came up with Marlowe. He saw him as a modern knight in search of a hidden truth. As he tries to find it he goes on a journey that takes him to the mean streets. He described Marlowe as someone who must be a man with character and honour and he must know his job and accept no money dishonestly. He talks with a rude wit and shows contempt for pettiness and disgust for a sham.

In the seven novels featuring Marlowe, he is a man who resists the corrupting influences around him. His clients are wealthy but money has made them unhappy. In The Big Sleep, for example, General Sternwood is a recluse with so much money he can't enjoy it. He hires Marlowe to find a blackmailer and ends up getting involved in a case of murder and doublecross.

Directed by Howard Hawks, The Big Sleep is a fine example of entertainment substituting for art and what you have is acting on a level you don't see anymore. Bogart's Marlowe is a close relative of Sam Spade. Compare both their inscrutable logic and determination to get at the truth. Both characters are careful to watch out for themselves and find help others no matter what might happen and, yet, he is a detective who learns fast by example.

William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, and Jules Furthman have written sharp dialogue to match the wits of the actors who personify the intrigue and suspense to a high degree, and under Hawks' direction, you become so immersed as if you are right up there with them.

Lauren Bacall in her autobiography, By Myself, says during the filming of The Big Sleep no one understood what was going. It didn't do any good to call Raymond Chandler.

For anyone seeing The Big Sleep for the first or umpteenth time, there is definitely a sea of mystery and action in a story that is as real and genuine as it can be on the big screen. The chemistry between Bogart and Bacall is something to look forward to. The Big Sleep was their second time together after To Have And Have Not (Warner Brothers, 1944) which The Screening Room is showing on June 24 at 4 p.m. On June 27 is Dark Passage (Warner Brothers, 1947).

Missing is Key Largo (1948) which you can seek out to rent or buy. It is directed by John Huston.

June 13, 2012

Copyright Rick Jackson 2012

PROMETHEUS (20TH CENTURY FOX, 2012)****

BY RICK JACKSON
The mythology of man's creation is the focus of director Ridley Scott's latest directorial effort. As not a prequel to Alien (1979), although it asks the moviegoer to think more of what you saw in the latter in order to understand the way alien societies think. The consistent point of interest reverts back to it within the simple plot structure and the dialogue, especially in the scenes where a character questions why someone would create something then destroy it. The words cry for a sequel as you watch the finale in terms of where Scott will go in possible sequels.

Here is a film that provokes humans to think about creation and why a scientist would want to tinker with it. Author Mary Shelley did it with Frankenstein and Hollywood has done well with the many movies about the Frankenstein monster.

Humans lack faith to carry on and in the science fiction genre it is part of the myth that the Science Fiction Encyclopedia refers as continuous change. The role of the alien society and why it created itself is, in terms of Prometheus and Alien, is how they struggle to survive. Coming to earth, they are using humans to carry their embryos so their race will become extinct. What man fails to understand is how easily our race will someday come to an end, and it is something worth thinking about when you talk about the film afterwards.

As a movie, Scott's reason is to make it worth sitting through and he succeeds in making another marvel in science fiction and to think seriously of how we were created apart from Charles Darwin's Origin Of The Species and The Book of Genesis. Unlike Faust who sold his soul in exchange for knowledge, Scott is interested in seeing how many moviegoers will pay to see a story that subliminally asks questions you never thought you'd ask.

When one of the other worldly creatures tells a human to try harder, it is really the film director asking the question. The answer will be different for many and it will depend on your interest in the subject whether or not you just want to see if you can be scared one more time, especially if you saw Aliens in 1986.

Prometheus was a Greek god who created man from clay because he wanted to know what made him stay alive. In his own way, he also believed in man's mortality. Hollywood saw potential in the theme to gross out moviegoers and there is a definite audience for it but seeing Prometheus the film is going to be a different experience. The relationship with mythology is obscure and skin deep under the guise of the film's main purpose, and you will see in 3D images that will impress beyond Alien and its sequels. It is deliberately slow paced and throughout each character is determined to reflect on the story's main theme.

In a way, science fiction has depended on our understanding of ourselves as members of the human race, and whether or not we want to see the end of the world. The aliens conjured up in Hollywood are looking at our survival through our basic human needs for love and sex and see an opportunity to exploit them and this is particularly evident among the crew of Prometheus.

The special effects are outstanding even in 3D and there is evidence of alien life on the walls of the caves recalling our own drawings of how we lived if you remember Werner Herzog's Cave Of Forgotten Dreams.

David, the andrioid, is perfectly payed by Michael Fassbender as the one hope for man's survival, unlike the one in the original Alien which was programmed to destroy us.

Noomi Rapace injects solidarity and intelligence as Elizabeth Shaw and she is an important character to watch closely.

Charlize Theron is well cast as Meredith Vickers, who represents the company who financed the ship, Prometheus.

Marc Streitenfeld's music score, Dariusz Wolski's cinematography and Arthur Max's production design all contribute to this masterwork of science fiction.

It is rated 14A, with the warnings: frightening scenes, gory scenes and violence.

June 10, 2012
Copyright Rick Jackson 2012

COSMOPOLIS (E-ONE, 2012) ****

BY RICK JACKSON

The opening few minutes of director David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis shows Robert Pattinson and Jay Baruchel in a car driving around Manhattan. The effective close-up shots of each of them underscore the serious nature of their conversations, along with the stores, street and people and the clear and present danger you don't see. Like an early sequence in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971) and Drive (2011), there is a tendency for the obvious to not be true as the future of urban life in a modern world conveys a sense of paranoia and urban angst underneath this simple story of a 28-year-old man named Eric (Pattinson) who is on his way to get a haircut. What he experiences reveals a lot about human behaviour, attitude, complete with characters who are driven by a nightmarish dilemma where each one exhibits a strange and near horrific state of mind. It catches you offguard as if you are caught in a personal time warp with them.

Cronenberg manages to keep you absorbed in the urban milieu where gang violence erupts at any given moment.

As you watch the film unfold you soon learn that it is all a mirror image of ourselves when democracy has given away to riddled chaos and the attitudes about money, sex and violence have been reduced to a low level of debauchery. It all forms the focus of Cronenberg's latest effort in his screenplay based on the book of the same name by Don Lelillo. What Cronenberg wants you to feel is the real horror of what we have done to ourselves.

Pattinson of Twilight saga fame stretches as an actor when he has to something about a pie thrown in his face. It is not as effective as Ryan Gosling's stand in Drive but it does help you understand Eric as a person unafraid to react above his normal complacency to prove he has the courage to defend himself. In the last half-hour, he meets Benno Levin (Paul Giamatti) in a beautifully executed and written summary of the film's message about how far humanity has become and the conclusion of the film will remain as mmorable as Cronenberg's Eastern Promises.

Howard Shore's music score nicely complements the mult-layered mood and atmosphere which only enhances your enjoyment of a movie which is guaranteed to keep you thinking about the moral implications of the plot.

Cronenberg likes to hold you in suspense and you need to pay attention to the dialogue to appreciate the film's full impact.

Juliette Binoche as Didi Fancher, Eric's art consultant with whom he has an affair, adds the requisite sexual proclivity, as does Sarah Gadon as Elise Shifrin. The innocence and purity of Elise is exactly the opposite to Didi's boldness.

The songs performed by Metric add a contemporary feel to match the film's subtle underpinnings of what DeLillo and the director agree are the realties of where society is headed. It gives pause for thought.

It is rated 14A, with the warnings: coarse language, sexual content and graphic violence.

June 9, 2012
Copyright Rick Jackson 2012

INDY, SCANDAL & CLIFFHANGER

C CLIFFHANGER (Tri-Star, 1993)

Cliffhanger is a slam bang adventure full of action, thrills, and suspense. From director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2) comes a film you have been waiting to see all year. With less talk and more action, it is an exciting roller coaster ride of a movie.

Sylvester Stallone returns to the action/adventure genre for the first time since Rambo III. He plays Gabe Walker, an experience climber with the Rocky Mountain Rescue Team. Co-star John Lithgow stars as Eric Qualen, the ruthless leader of a gang of thieves. Northern Exposure's Janine Turner is cast as Jessie Deighan, Stallone's love interest.

Based on a premise by John Long, the screenplay by Michael France and Stallone from a screen story by France focuses on the struggle of the gang to retrieve $100 million in three suitcases which have been lost in the mountains. Walker and his co-worker Hal Tucker (Michael Rooker) are taken prisoner and forced to find the money by Qualen and his cronies.

Underneath this simple story is the theme of redemption. Early in the film, Stallone's character makes a fatal mistake. When he gets a second chance his confidence is restored and he is able to go on living.

Shot on location, the Dolomite Mountain Range of the Italian Alps substituted for the mountains of Colorado. Named after an 18th century French geologist, the Dolomite Mountains were formed 200 million years ago.

A vertical rig was built and mounted to a cliff face to produce some of the movie's great visual effects, and the mountain sequences were filmed at 13,000 feet above sea level and supervised by the world's most experienced climbers, safety personnel and stuntmen under the direction of climbing co-ordinator Mike Weis.

The supporting cast features Ralph Waite as Frank, a veteran rescue pilot; Paul Winfield as Walter Wright, a Treasury Department official; Rex Linn as Treasury Agent Travers, and Michelle Joyner as Sarah.

The msic score by Trevor Jones complements the action perfectly. As it builds up, it keeps the adrenalin going, especially in the climax when Qualen and Walker match wits.

Cliffhanger keeps you on the edge of your seat right from the first frame.

It is rated R/Restricted, with the warning: brutal violence.

June 8, 1993
Copyright Rick Jackson 1993

SCANDAL (Odeon Films, 1989)

The Profumo Affair of 1963 that became the most widely publicized political scandal in England's history makes a compelling story in Scandal. Sensitively directed by newcomer Michael Caton-Jones, it is one of the year's finest films. John Hurt gives a distinguished performance as Dr. Stephen Ward, and Joanne Whalley-Kilmer is positively stunning as Christine Keeler.

The screenplay by Michael Thomas is based on fact. He recreates the events of the Profumo Affair in a tasteful manner. The story takes place in London between 1959 and 1963 when the social changes in Great Britain following World War II resulted in newfound prosperity for the country. The Conservative government in power was riding highand the overall mood was "You've never had it so good."

Ward was the key figure in events that followed. He was a playboy whose social circle included royalty, film stars and prominent politicians. His reputation for pretty showgirls included a 17-year-old named Christine Keeler. Awed by his glamorous way of life, she moved in with him.

Her admirers ranged from Lord Astor to the Russian diplomat Ivanov. Her most important client was John Profumo, the British Secretary of State For War.

When Keeler is involved in a shooting incident at Ward's place, he is afraid of losing his social position and asks her to leave. Keeler is frightened and seeks solace with a journalist on Fleet Street and it is to him she tells her story. The rumours and innuendo surrounding Profumo and Keeler create a storm of controversy in the British House of Commons.

The police investigate Ward, his friends and relatives. He is later charged with living on the amoral earnings of a prostitute. Keeler and her friend, Randy Rice-Davies testify at Ward's trial which is sensationalized in the press.

The night the jury retires, Ward takes a fatal dose of barbituates. In his suicide note he says, "I'm sorry to disappoint the vultures."

Hurt imbues his character with siphistication and wit, and he makes the film interesting from beginning to end. He is perfectly cast in a role that seems made for him. It is superior to his role in last year's White Mischief which was too bizarre to be believed.

As Keeler, Whalley-Kilmer plays the innocent young girl perfectly and her frivolity helps create the illusion of something else going on.

Caton-Jones symbolizes the downfall of the Conservative government in Ward's final scene when the ashes from the completely burned out cigarette in his hand drop to the floor.

The supporting cast features Bridget Fonda as Rice-Davies, Ian McKellen as Profumo, Leslie Phillips as Lord Astor, Roland Gift from The Fine Young Cannibals as Johnny Edgecomb, and Jeroen Crabbe as Ivanov.

Produced by Stephen Woollet, Scandal is not to be missed.

It is rated R/Restricted, with the warning: sexual content

June 7, 1989

Copyright Rick Jackson 1989

Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom (Paramount, 1984)

It has been three years since Steven Spielberg introduced Indiana Jones to moviegoers. As portrayed by Harrison Ford in Raiders Of The Lost Ark he became our hero, like Superman, Rocky, Luke Skywalker, and E.T. Created by George Lucas, it was Jones' spirit of adventure that made us go back to see him more than once. Everyone loves an adventure and Spielberg caught us by surprise.

On Wednesday morning, May 23, fans of Indiana Jones lined up in the rain and cold to see their hero in Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom. Such loyalty and devotion has already made it the most popular movie of the year. At the box office it has made $42.3 million in the biggest six days in movie history. It beat last summer's Return Of The Jedi which made $41.1 million after six days.

The second screen adventure of Indiana Jones takes him to Shanghai and a remote part of India, where he faces one danger after another. It is 1935, one year before Raiders. Although you don't learn any more about him in this prequel, the action is non-stop and there are thrills galore.

From the opening sequence in Shanghai at the Obi-Wan nightclub to the gut-wrenching finish on a rope bridge in India, Spielberg entertains you for two solid hours.

You are also introduced to Willie Scott (and a bevy of lovely ladies who are singing and dancing to Cole Porter's Anything Goes in Chinese. It's a fond tribute to Busby Berkeley and those old-fashioned musicals from the 1930s.

From this opening bit of nostalgia, the camera shows you a tall gentleman wearing a white suit. No, it is not John Huston in The Treasure From The Sierra Madre. As he walks toward a table where three Chinese gentlemen are sitting, you recognize him immediately: he's Indy.

From a furious chase through the streets of Shanghai, tension mounts as he is caught in the grip of danger. For a moment, you almost miss Dan Aykroyd's cameo appearance at the airport, because Spielberg turns up the continuous action.

In the film, there is a reference to Indiana's fear of snakes which will certainly draw a hearty laugh.

Nightclub singer Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) and a Chinese kid named Short Round (Ke Huay Quan) add excitement to the film's plot. The former makes a good heroine, even if she isn't as good as Karen Allen in Raiders of The Lost Ark. As Jones' sidekick, Scott is a nice addition to the series.

As the sinister Mola Ram, Indian actor Amrish Puri has an evil look in his eye which the director captures in a quick shot. With the strength to tear a man's heart out, he is the personification of evil.

Spielberg's expertise with the action scenes makes up for any noticeable flaws, such as the predictable plot. He succeeds in getting your undivided attention because each shot is set up to break the motonony of what you think might happen next. He also gives you the feeling you are up there with the characters and this contributes to the plenty of thrills that will add up to a moviegoing experience to remember.

Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom is the most fun you'll have at the movies this summer.

It is rated PG/Parental Guidance, with the warning: frightening scenes

June 6, 1984

Copyright Rick Jackson 1984

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (UNIVERSAL, 2012)****

BY RICK JACKSON

With eager anticipation I welcomed Snow White And The Huntsman this weekend. In his directorial debut, Rupert Sanders has taken Grimms' 19th century fairy tale and turned it into a timeless story of how little it takes for us to have faith in humanity. From this seed, there is the plot of good versus evil amid the trappings of a story where your imagination is key to your understanding of life, and how you can make a difference in the lives of others by believing in yourself.

Production designer Dominic Watkins recreates a period reserved for fairytales and you are immediately impressed by the texture and quality of the colours that are sometimes deep in tonw to underscore the rich sense of storytelling, while in other scenes the shaded hues appear colourless to match the mood and atmosphere of the characters.

Early in the film, Raveena (Charlize Theron) is surrounded in deep dark colours to symbolize her strong position of authority and powers that can be taken away from someone whose blood is the fairest. Theron injects her role with equal dexterity and ambition to succeed, and there is a constant sense of urgency each time she is required to convey the evil queen who is determined to keep the world in a state of darkness and unhappiness. You may be reminded of how there was winter in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe by Tilda Swinton's character.

The screenplay by Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock, and Hossein Amini, from a story by Daugherty, brings the real story of Snow White to life like never before, and it is quite different from Walt Disney's sanitized version.

Kristen Stewart is the epitome of innocence as Snow White. Her sensitive performance is balanced by her courage and tenacity to help her late father's subjects return to the kind of life they had before Raveena changed it. Despite her obvious naivete there is a strong sense of responsibility that conquers her fears.

Chris Hemsworth is perfectly cast as The Huntsman. His manliness is needed to make the story work when he is opposite the fragile Snow White. Their chemistry together is not meant to be anything but superificial, despite some critics who wanted a steamy love scene which would have ruined the film's overall impact. After all, this is still a fairytale. It reminds me, too, of a different take on Little Red Riding Hood in 1985 with Company Of Wolves starring Angela Lansbury. The version last year was also well done.

The special effects in the dark forest add to your enjoyment for there are some interesting friends and foes to sift through while you wait for something major to happen.

The castle where Raveena's powers are at their peak features a flock of black birds that can morph into anything.

Costume designer Colleen Atwood who has worked mostly with director Tim Burton on such films as Edward Scissorhands (1989), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Big Fish (2003), Sweeney Todd (2007) and Alice In Wonderland (2010) brings the period to life with the plain coloured outfits for Stewart and Theron, along with the dwarfs and their work clothes.

In supporting roles, Ian McShane, Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost, Eddie Marsan and Toby Jones play the dwarfs, and Sam Claflin is William, Snow White's childhood friend.

Complemented by Greig Fraser's splendid cinematography and James Newton Howard's triumphant music score, Snow White And The Huntsman is worth seeing.

It is rated PG, with the warnings: not recommended for young children and violence.

June 3, 2012

Copyright Rick Jackson 2012