Apocalypse Tomorrow!

The Los Angeles Times has a short, interesting article, "Apocalypse when?: May 21 and other doomsday dates on film," about the end of the world as we know it. The article has a slideshow of stills from apocalyptic films and each is accompanied by some essential, don't-make-any-plans-without-it, be-prepared information: When; Who called it; What's going to get us; and What can save us.

This post's photo is the third in the slideshow and is a Columbia/TriStar publicity photo for 2012.

Calling 2012 for the end seems at odds with what the article states is a prediction for tomorrow: "According to Christian radio broadcaster Harold Camping of the Family Radio organization, Saturday is the first day of the "end of days," leading to the final, absolute, this-is-really-it, end-of-the-world doomsday on Oct. 21, 2011. Keep both dates free."

Of course, Harold Camping isn't a filmmaker. But, too, some filmmaker's have been mistaken about the date. The UK Guardian's "The Rapture: judgment day imminent … if US engineer has calculated right" has an interesting story about Camping's prediction.

Blow Out: A political conspiracy thriller?

In 1981, Vincent Canby wrote an interesting review of Brian De Palma's Blow Out:

... [M]ore important than anything else about ''Blow Out'' is its total, complete and utter preoccupation with film itself as a medium in which, as Mr. De Palma has said along with a number of other people, style really is content. If that is the case, ''Blow Out'' is exclusively concerned with the mechanics of movie making, with the use of photographic and sound equipment and, especially, with the manner in which sound and images can be spliced together to reveal possible truths not available when the sound and the image are separated.

This subject is, I suspect, so arcane that most moviegoers will insist on looking at ''Blow Out'' in terms of the story, which was written by Mr. De Palma as well as directed by him. Because that's only about half of the movie, and because the story is not entirely, consistently logical, a number of people may feel cheated. If one takes ''Blow Out'' on this level, it becomes the kind of movie one watches with increasing excitement until one gets to the end and asks, ''Is that all there is?''...

Canby's thought that the film is about getting the perfect scream makes sense. The film begins with Jack (John Travolta) doing the sound for a co-ed slasher film. The producer isn't satisfied with a girl's scream, so Jack's job is to get that scream for their film. Blow Out ends with that perfect scream dubbed into their film. How Jack gets that scream (by unhappy coincidence) is the "story" of Blow Out.

A Blu-ray edition of Blow Out was released on April 26th of this year. The Blu-ray not only includes the film, whose transfer was supervised and approved by De Palma, but an interview (about an hour) with De Palma, an interview with Nancy Allen (about 1/2 hour), an interview with cameraman Garrett Brown (about Steadicam shots -- he invented the Steadicam), two written reviews, and De Palma's 1967 feature Murder à la Mod, which was watched on television by one of the characters in Blow Out. Some of Louis Goldman's behind-the-scenes still photos are also included.

The still from Blow Out, above, showing Jack checking a wire on Sally (Nancy Allen), is from Blu-ray.com's screenshots, several of which -- the black and whites -- aren't from Blow Out. Those are from De Palma's Murder à la Mod.

West Side Story's 50th Anniversary

It's been fifty years since the film version of West Side Story appeared. There is a rumor that it will appear on Blu-ray, later this year. Let's hope so.

If not, there are at least two DVDs available. First, there is the MGM "full-screen" release, which was panned and scanned to be "full-screen" on an old-school television. As soon as I saw the first dance scene, I knew that a lot of the film was missing, visually, so I hit "eject" and took it right back to the library. Then, there is the "Special Edition" DVD, which presents the film as it was meant to be seen. The "Special Edition" can be purchased for $35.00, directly from the film's official website or from Amazon for considerably more. It comes in oversized packaging, so I didn't know the library had it until I saw it in the catalog and went to the "oversized" shelves.

West Side Story is phenomenal, visually and musically. Among the many songs written for it, "America" and "I Feel Pretty" are my favorites.

Though it's a love story, West Side Story is also a story of ethnic hate. Whose death is more moving? Tony's or Bernardo's? Why?

The photo is "The sharks girls extol the virtues of America," taken by Owen Carey at Portland Center Stage's production of West Side Story in 2007.

Oldboy

I saw it twice before I began to fully comprehend director Park Chan-wook's Oldboy. You may have heard, "Don't get mad, get even," and "Revenge is a dish best served cold," but Oldboy is a cautionary tale.

Don Murphy, producer of Natural Born Killers, Apt Pupil and Transormers wrote:

At the height of the mystery of OLDBOY, the main character Oh Dae-su has just fought his way back out of the building where he believes he was illegally held prisoner for a decade and a half. It will turn out he's correct, although it doesn't solve the central mystery of "who" and "why." He takes a moment to suck up his courage. He just fought off three dozen thugs with weapons and this is no easy thing.

It's at this point that Oh Dae-su wonders, via the magic of narration, whether he'll ever be the same after he's had his revenge. He doesn't allow himself all that much reflection -- mere moments later he's back on his journey of revenge. But, having seen the film multiple times, it's that split second that stands out to me. He knows this is all going to end in blood and shit, in pain and agony. But he's got to do it. ...

... Indeed, upon reflection, the one and only possibility to avoid the vengeance that ultimately comes in OLDBOY is to walk away and do nothing. But Oh Dae-su can't walk away. He NEEDS to know who stole fifteen years of his life and killed his wife. He needs to find out and get the bastard back. I would too. So even though he does pause to reflect about whether this is a good idea or not, he cannot stop. As humans the desire for retribution is in our genes.

Oldboy is part of the "Vengeance Trilogy," which includes two additional, excellent films from director Park Chan-wook: Mr. Vengeance and Lady Vengeance.

The photo (Oh Dae-su imprisoned) is a still from Oldboy and was found at The New York Times' unappreciative review of the film, "The Violence (and the Seafood) Is More Than Raw." (I noticed two tooth extraction scenes; the tooth extractions weren't done by a dentist; however, what was about to happen was sufficiently foreshadowed that I had time to put a hand in front of my eyes. What I imagined was about to happen may have been far more gruesome than what was filmed. I'll see the film again and may screw up my courage to find out.)

The quote from Don Murphy was copied from a booklet that accompanies the "Vengeance Trilogy."

Should you see this film? Yes! For the irony of Oh Dae-su's quest and to experience his horror when he learns "who" and "why."