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Galactic War update. Day 197-209

What I Watched This Week #139 (August 26-Sep 1) The Edge of the World dir. Michael Powell/1937/1h15m The Edge of the World is an early film from Michael Powell and the one that launched his career. It tells the story of a small farming community on an isolated island far off the Scottish coast, the aging population eventually having to evacuate to the mainland, leaving their way of life behind. This is based on the true story of St Kilda. It is told in flashback by one of the three young people on the island at the time it was evacuated, Andrew (Niall MacGinnis). He was best friends with Robbie Manson (Eric Berry) and in love with his sister Ruth Manson (Belle Chrystall), while their father Peter (John Laurie, instantly recognisable to fans of sitcom Dad's Army) was the community leader, desperate to hang on to the old way of life. Tragedy and hardship are a constant here, which the villagers face with stoic pride, with Laurie giving a particularly strong performance. Although the film focuses mainly on the younger characters, this is Peter's story and his grim determination to carry on despite the mounting odds against him is really touching, with the final scenes as he resigns himself to fate and the future hitting hard. This is complimented with some gorgeous photography of the wild landscapes and raging seas. Some of the supporting performances aren't in the same league as Laurie but that doesn't detract too much from this gripping story. 8.5/10 A History of Violence dir. David Cronenberg/2005/1h36m When small-town family man Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) kills a man in self defence as he tries to rob his diner he becomes a local celebrity and his past comes to say hello. What really struck me about this film is how generic it all feels and doesn't seem to fit in at all with Cronenberg's other work like Crash, The Fly, Videodrome or the recent Crimes of the Future. There's nothing particularly subversive here with the plot being very predictable and the characters one-dimensional. Mortensen is a solid lead, and Ed Harris is fun as a mob enforcer - and I can't forget William Hurt who turns up with five minutes to go and steals the whole film - but everyone else is pretty lacklustre, especially Ashton Holmes as Tom's whiny teenage son Jack. It's shot well and there are some scenes of pretty gruesome violence, but it lacks that creeping sense of dread and unease that usually permeates Cronenberg's films. This is still a good film, but in comparison to the director's other work it disappoints. 6/10 The Masque of the Red Death dir. Roger Corman/1964/1h30m This Edgar Allan Poe adaptation from the king of the b-movies Roger Corman stars Vincent Price as Prince Prospero, a sadistic ruler who delights in tormenting the peasants under his rule. When a plague known as the red death starts to sweep the land he locks himself in his castle with a bunch of his rich friends, throwing lavish parties that will end with a masquerade where they will summon Satan himself. Trapped with them is pretty villager Francesca (Jane Asher), who Prospero wants to use as his plaything. This is a lavish, vibrant, colourful production that gets the perfect mix of camp and creepy. I love that the longer we spend in the castle the more otherworldly the lighting and the camera angles become, culminating in a downright surreal ending. Price is captivating in the lead, the role seemingly made just for him. He can turn from playful to threatening in a second, his distinctive voice carrying just the right amount of menace. Just as good is Hazel Court as Prospero's wife Juliana, who is just as cruel and insane as he is. This is exactly the kind of classic horror that I love. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Moana dir. John Musker, Ron Clements/2016/1h47m In ancient Polynesia Moana (Auli'i Cravalho), the adventurous daughter of an island chief, must defy her father and head out on the ocean to make demi-god Maui (The Rock) return the treasure he stole a thousand years ago in order to end a curse that's threatening her island. It's obvious when you watch this just why they chose to tell a story that's set mostly at sea, it's because they have absolutely nailed water animation. The oceans in this film look better than real footage of oceans. There's a real weight and thickness to every drop of water that feels just right. The story is pretty standard Disney princess fare, with the headstrong princess setting out to find her own destiny much like The Little Mermaid (also directed by Musker and Clements), but Moana is a great character, with a strong performance by Cravalho really bringing her to life. The Rock is The Rock, and how much you like his character will depend on how much you like The Rock. The songs are all fine but none really stick in your head. The best one is Shiny, sung by a giant evil gold obsessed crab voiced by Flight of the Conchord's Jermaine Clement. A fun film even if the formula is a bit tired. 7.5/10 Golem dir. Piotr Szulkin/1979/1h33m This Polish sci-fi film inspired by the Jewish folk story stars Marek Walczewski as Pernat, a man being interrogated by the police for murder, but he has no memory of that, or anything else. The film is made up of a series of absurd, Kafkaesque encounters between himself and other people, mostly his neighbours in the apartment building where he thinks he lives. The whole film is bathed in a sickly green light that speaks of a dying, dystopic world that's a mix between the decay of Tarkovsky and the oppression of Orwell. The confined nature of the film, along with the nauseating lighting bought to mind Caro and Jeunet's Delicatessen. Walczewski is a passive lead, understandably so seeing as he has no idea what's going on, reminding me a lot of Anthony Perkins in Orson Welles's The Trial, which begins in much the same way as this film. This is a hard to parse film that I don't fully grasp beyond the big picture of identity and self-discovery and free will, but there is more, alluded to in enigmatic scenes where scientists are being interviewed about Pernat's progress in the outside world, a reject in their genetic experimentation that has taken on a life of its own. A fascinating film with incredible atmosphere. 8/10 Sting dir. Kiah Roache-Turner/2024/1h32m Alyla Brown (who was excellent as the young Furiosa in the most recent Mad Max film) stars as moody 12 year old Charlotte, living with her mother, step-father and baby brother in a New York apartment building. When she finds a cool looking spider – which crash landed from outer space – she decides to keep it. Unfortunately it gets very big very fast and everyone in the building is at risk. This is a generic creature-feature that at times feels like a throwback to 50s giant insect films, but at times tries to reach for something more, and it doesn't always fail. I like the attempt at more character development here than you would usually get in films like this, with the relationship between Charlotte and her step-father Ethan (Ryan Corr) coming across as quite real and natural. Being an arachnophobe this film did creep me out at times, although the bigger and more alien the spider became the less scary it was. When it was still rather small and scurrying around in cupboards and suchlike it felt much more threatening. Not a bad film but I'll probably forget about it sooner rather than later. 5/10 Sunnyside dir. Charlie Chaplin/1919/33m This Chaplin short sees him as both a farmhand and a hotel bellboy who is in love with the local beauty played by his regular co-star Edna Purviance in what is a very typical film of his for this time. He's not really playing The tr*mp here, so he's a little less anarchic, though there are still plenty of pratfalls and slap-fights. What really impressed me here were some of the technical touches, especially the times he fades from one shot to the next with them matching perfectly, it's very well done for the time. This is the point in his career where it feels like he's being restrained by the limits of the shorter runtimes, with it being another couple of years before he releases his first true masterpiece The Kid. He's mastered the short comedy and needs a bigger challenge in his life. That's not to say he is slacking here as he is still performing at a higher level than anyone else at the time and this film is still full of plenty of laughs, but it's still a case of what next? 6/10 @djw180 time for the Kurosawa Shakespeare trilogy next? would love to hear your opinion on them.

I have now finished my Laurence Olivier Shakespearian collection. My rating of these, best last is, As You Like It King Lear Richard III The Merchant of Venice Henry V Hamlet He was, without any shadow of a doubt, one of the greatest actors of all time, possibly the greatest. As a director he was not quite so good though.

Henry V (1944) dir Laurence Olivier Olivier's version of one of Shakespeare's most famous history plays, about the battle of Agincourt in 1415. It was made and released during the second world war as a morale booster and some of the cuts from the original seem to be with this in mind, removing scenes such as the attempted betrayal of Henry and the hanging of Bardolph who stole from a church. Olivier is of course in the title role. The films starts as if you are watching a performance of the play in early 1600s London, with the characters on a stage all wearing costumes from that era. It then switches to a set and costumes representing early 1400s when the story moves from England to France. It keeps the role of the Chorus (Leslie Banks) who's job was both to narrate between scenes and also encourage the audience to imagine the things they could not do on a stage, like ride horses and fight a massive battle, but those things are portrayed in the film. It's generally very good. The acting is great and as per usual Olivier is outstanding, but I do have some negative criticisms of the battle scenes, which given the point of both the film and the play is portray Henry's victory, are fairly important. As is the case for all adaptations of the story I have seen (this, Kenneth Brannagh's, a BBC TV version and Netflix's The King), they show a battle between mounted knights with the English making use of their longbow men as well. In reality the knights almost all fought on foot. They knew very well that on horse back an enemy archer did not need to shoot you, because if they shot your horse instead, a much bigger and less well armoured target, you would be out of battle. That would not be so bad, after all a battle between mounted knights is what Shakespeare's lines describe, but in this version there is too much of it. It seems to me to have been done to impress the cinema audience, for the spectacle of showing knights in brightly coloured costumes charging across the screen. But it makes the actual battle very confusing. All you see is repeated scenes of mounted knights charging one way, having a bit of a sword fight, then charging off in another direction. I don't think you can tell why it is that an outnumbered English army won this battle. However after the battle, it returns to the previous good form for the final scene of the victorious Henry negotiating his winnings. So overall good, but with one majorflawed scene. 7 / 10

Excellent to know, thank you. I had a few job ideas during TwoBros today, so may make use of this trick if I get around to making anything.