Sorry for the upcoming flood of my blabberings, but I have seen some films in the last weeks and now finally had some time on my hands to share it with you (“WHATTT? NOOOOO!”).
So here it goes.
THE PRINCE OF TIDES
Yes. 1992. Barbra Streisand returns as director and actress with this adaptation of Pat Conroy´s novel, with Nick Nolte in the main starring role.
I remember watching this in the cinema during a sneak preview, and the audience at first laughed and moaned when Streisand´s name came up - but then it was totally captivated, laughed at the right moments, and finally even applauded. I also liked the film a lot - but I never revisited it in the last decades because I remembered it as poignant in the first two thirds and soapy in the last one.
Well, it kinda remains that way. But this time - I am much older, of course - I loved it from start to finish. Despite the final line. It just is wonderfully directed, acted, edited, scored and photographed, and I just love this kind of big Hollywood film dealing with grown-up problems. (Only letdown: Jeroen Krabbé´s overly smug and slimey performance, kind of if Koskov had been a violinist.)
Nuts
Whoa, Streisand again? Yes. And to my surprise I loved this film and her performance even more than back then. Martin Ritt directed this one, although as I understand he was very condescending towards Streisand who produced the film and finally took over in the Final Cut. What she did with this is very effective and much more interesting. Richard Dreyfuss is also pretty good here. And Streisand perfectly shows how many men, especially old men, treated women in the late 80´s (basically as unruly children). Another great melodrama, unjustly forgotten these days.
Now, I know this is a weird contrast - but afterwards I watched this one…
Rambo: First Blood, Part Two / “Rambo: Last Blood”
I always loved the first “First Blood” - such a great action thriller with a serious backbone, about how aggression meeting counter-aggression can only escalate into disaster.
I was 16 when the second Rambo hit theaters and instantly became a punching bag in the German press which only poured hate and scorn on the film and the character, reducing Rambo to a jingoistic, Reagan-era revisionist of the Vietnam war by turning him into a comic book action hero.
I remember feeling guilty buying a ticket to this “filth”, sitting in a packed theatre and leaving with an audience in silence, maybe because nobody wanted to really admit that they had enjoyed the action.
I don´t think I watched it again after that on video, and even if I went to see “Rambo III” at a time when the outrage was over but everybody already was making fun of the character (even “Hot Shots, Part Deux”), I don’t really remember much about that third part other than the beginning.
I did seek out “John Rambo”, the fourth one, and was turned off by the tons of gore in that. I thought the idea behind it was sound, and showing what bullets will do to the body is also kind of honest - but I remember that movie as a truly depressing and ugly experience.
So when I finally checked out “Rambo: Last Blood” I did not expect to really watch it from beginning to end, especially not after so many reviews burying it and describing it as even gorier and “the most violent film ever made”.
That hyperbole turned out to be silly and untrue, thankfully. Sure, the film does depict violence in a gruesome way - but wouldn´t anything else have been more disgusting, since this is about human traffickers turning Rambo´s ersatz-daughter into a drug addicted sex slave?
To my surprise I watched the whole film and really appreciated it. The film does not only cleverly and subtly nods towards the previous films, it also uses these scenes to portray the character as a modern day Sisyphus, doomed to live in an endless cycle of trauma, during which he has to witness his loved ones suffer and being unable to do anything about it but revenge.
Well written, directed, shot and acted. A worthy end to the Rambo-saga (no, I won’t count the prequel without Stallone as another part of this).
And in the spirit of this I decided to revisit the second film again - and I must also say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I even discovered that it is not jingoistic at all, nor does it allign with the Reagan-era America.
Critics apparently willfully overlooked every scene and dialogue which openly signaled the critique on Republican politics because Rambo does fulfill a fantasy - finally rescuing American P.O.V.s still held in Vietnam at that time - by going full throttle one man army. But there are so many points which differentiate him from what the critics turned him into. For example:
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his whole mission in the film, to be dropped into enemy territory and just take photographs if indeed US soldiers are still being held there, is a sham from the start, and the guy from the Reagan administration knows that without disclosing it even to Rambo’s former Colonel. The administration does not want to have any proof and rather acts as if everything’s fine.
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Rambo (in a very well acted scene) has no illusions why he is sent (“I’m expendable”), and the sadness in Stallone´s face is heart-breaking
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the often quoted scene “Sir, are we allowed to win this time?” is not an attempt at revisionism but points to the treatment of US soldiers and later on the veterans, and when Rambo in the end rescues the soldiers from that one small camp and brings them back to the military base he is just saving the lives of these poor souls. Afterwards he shoots down the whole US command center, threatening the guy from the administration to this time make good on his promise of rescuing the other soldiers still held captive. And Rambo’s pardon granted for this mission (nobody expected him to survive) is rejected by him, he does not even want to return to the United States anymore.
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Rambo does end the film with lines about his patriotism, but he also states that the country does not love the soldiers it sent out to fight for it.
In conclusion, this second film is a fantasy, yes, told in the form of an action-adventure, but it again has a serious backbone. Unfortunately, it was misunderstood as much as Springsteen´s “Born in the U.S.A.”
I should revisit “Rambo III” soon. Maybe that one is also better than I thought.
But first I turned to finally watch this one…
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
In contrast to the reviews I was intrigued during the first hour which does heavy duty to tie every previous film together and even sets up the unresolved plot from “Dead Reckoning”. I thought this was handled pretty well, actually.
But the second half of the movie fell apart for me. I got the feeling that this was so clearly rewritten countless times, then put together around the major two setpieces - and both set pieces are, despite surely being highly dangerous and complex to film, not as impressive as those in the previous films anymore. One really gets jaded watching these, I fear, and once Cruise held on to an airplane, another plane extravaganza just feels “been there, done that”, just like another underwater sequence. Also, the formula is just worn out: lots of exposition delivered by the growing team, then the action sequence, and repeat. There is a bare bones plot, yes, but it is not as engaging as it should be. Even if now the AI entity threatens to take over the whole nuclear arsenal of the world and kill humanity. It´s just “and at the last second it all gets resolved” for the umpteenth time.
I do like these characters, and it is all made absolutely competently - but nothing here is fresh and truly exciting. And it was back then when McQuarrie took over for “Rogue Nation” and the best one, “Fallout”.
This franchise should leave it at this.