A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964) - Review

A Fistful of Dollars

Western
1 hour and 39 minutes
Rated: R

Written by: Victor Andrés Catena, Jaime Comas Gil, and Sergio Leone
Directed by: Sergio Leone
Produced by: Arrigo Colombo & Giorgio Papi

Cast:
Clint Eastwood
Marianne Koch
Josef Edger
Wolfgang Lukschy
Gian Maria Volontè

This is the man with no name. Danger fits him like a glove.

While European filmmakers had dabbled in the western genre for as long as their American counterparts, the general European-filmgoing public didn't pay much attention to this particular genre up until the mid-1960s. Prior to its success, it was the peplum, or genre of gladiator movies, that Italian filmmakers and audiences set their interests on. Much like the spaghetti western craze that followed it, peplum films even utilized waning American actors to their benefit (Christopher Reeves was a popular name within the genre). But, of course, genre fads die off and are replaced with new interests. With the release of Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, the spaghetti, or Italowestern, had finally managed to grab a foothold with audiences not just in Europe, but across the globe.

But what set A Fistful of Dollars apart from the Eurowesterns that came before it? How did Leone manage to find success with his visionary film that so many other Italian filmmakers missed out on? The biggest and most obvious answer to these questions is that Leone managed to create something completely different within an already familiar genre. Whereas the Eurowesterns that came before it attempted to copy the much more popular American-made westerns in both stylization and characterization, Leone threw all of these genre hangups entirely out the window. Gone is the likable hero riding in on a white horse to save the day. Gone is the damsel in distress that serves as a romantic driving force for the film's hero. Gone is the man in black antagonist whose motivations seem to be purely evil, and completely polar opposite to the driving forces of the morally incorruptible protagonist. Gone are the Native Americans, grossly misrepresented. No, Leone's film may not be the first Eurowestern to physically exist, but as far as the precedents it established, A Fistful of Dollars is unquestionably the first ever true spaghetti western.

The film's hero, an antihero known only as the Man with No Name (yes, the coffin maker refers to him as, "Joe" throughout, but one gets the impression this character might refer to all yankee men with this namesake) replaces the typical morally pure western hero archetype. The Man with No Name is only interested in one thing and one thing only, his own self preservation and enrichment. While there are indeed moments of good that shine through from this character - his rescuing of Marisol and reuniting her with her family, as well as his saving Silvanito in the film's climax (this is perhaps mainly because the Man with No Name is fiscally indebted to Silvanito) - one gets the impression that these slight motivations of good and morality driven actions are not as important to the characterization of the Man with No Name. The point is made clear from the start. This is a man who enjoys profiting from toying with and killing other outlaws. He is not really a man who can be trusted. And yet we as an audience are endeared to him. Leone understood the irony behind taking an otherwise unlikable character and placing him at the center of the story as the "hero.". It allows for this fantasy world of the Wild West to be built around him. If he's the most likable or trustworthy figure, then surely the rest of this world is going to be gritty, brutal, nasty, and nihilistic in nature - all of which Leone creates here and would become staples of every spaghetti western that would follow A Fistful of Dollars.

Helping to further convey this gritty and hardedge vision of the west are the film's technical aspects. Cinematographer Massimo Dallamano gave the film an overall bright and sun-scorched image, so much so that even sequences filmed at night feel impossibly bright, as if there is no where to run and hide from the hard gazes of outlaws. While the film lacks the overall grand imagery that would become prominent in Leone's follow up westerns, as well as some of the westerns helmed by other Italian filmmakers, A Fistful of Dollars uses its ultra-low budget to its advantage. The single location of an out-of-sight, lawless bordertown feels genuine, and matches the rundown, gritty tone that permeates the story of the film. Similarly, the town's open and empty feeling also mirror the inescapability and hopelessness that Leone wished to create with his vision of the west.

The film's performances are remarkable, especially when considering the cast was comprised of either actors who were relatively green in experience and at the time were nobodies. Clint Eastwood obviously embodies the Man with No Name with all the conviction and believability of a seasoned character actor. There is a clear reason why this has remained his most iconic character that he has portrayed, maybe only rivaled by Dirty Harry. The supporting cast is equally impressive, with José Calvo as the irritable Silvanito constantly reminding the man with no name of the ugliness and realities of the world he occupies. These sequences serve as a sickly comedic reminder of the rather grim undertones of the movie. Most astonishing is spaghetti western icon Gian Maria Volontè as the film's villain Ramon Rojo. As Ramon, Gian creates a deeply ugly and twisted villain - a sadistic killer - but one who serves to mirror qualities present inside the film's hero. The two are opposite sides of the same coin, or maybe even just the same side of the same coin, one half of which is just a little more gritty. The exchanges between Volontè and Eastwood throughout the film are unquestionably the most enjoyable moments within A Fistful of Dollars and the final showdown between the two - while maybe not as epic in terms of scale in comparison to the conclusions of Leone's other westerns - is truly remarkable to behold, and the tension therein is both palpable and powerful.

The glaring problem with A Fistful of Dollars, despite all its amazing innovations to the genre of the western, is of course that it is a blatant ripoff of the Akira Kurosawa samurai film Yojimbo. This is unfortunate since Leone would later prove himself an ingenious storyteller - one arguably on the same level as Kurosawa - with his later films: For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, Duck, You Sucker, and Once Upon a Time in America are all brilliantly original and well-crafted stories. Why Leone chose to follow Kurosawa's story so closely - merely transposing its setting to the American west - is bizarre. Perhaps his confidence in himself as a filmmaker and storyteller had not yet reached the levels that it would once he achieved fame and respect with the release of A Fistful of Dollars.

Despite its unoriginal story, A Fistful of Dollars remains an incredibly innovative and important motion-picture that set the precedents and rules regarding all Italian-made, and really even American made, westerns that would follow in the wake of its enormous success. By throwing away the genre conventions and operating on his own intuition, Leone created a masterful film that can genuinely be called the first ever true spaghetti western.

9/10

ROBOCOP 2 (1990) - Review

RoboCop 2

Action/Crime/Sci-Fi
1 hour and 57 minutes
Rated: R

Written by: Frank Miller & Walon Green
Directed by: Irvin Kershner
Produced by: Jon Davison

Cast:
Peter Weller
Nancy Allen
Daniel O'Herlihy
Tom Noonan
Belinda Bauer
Gabriel Damon

Even in the future of law enforcement there is room for improvement.

In 1987, audiences across the world were graced with the science-fiction/action film RoboCop, an intelligent and enormously entertaining motion-picture that served as an allegory regarding the dangers of consumerism, commercialism, conservatism, and Reaganomics. In essence, it was a commentary on the very nation it existed within - 1980s America - as well as a warning regarding that nation's future (much like the equally intelligent and entertaining sci-fi/horror film They Live, directed by John Carpenter). With RoboCop, director Paul Verhoeven hit audiences with all the sledgehammer subtlety of TV advertisements with a message to wake up and understand the world that was happening all around them. It's no surprise that this message resonated (kind of) to the point where the film was a commercial success. And where there's commercial success, as capitalism in the entertainment business has taught us, there's almost assuredly going to be a franchise, or at the very least a sequel.

For RoboCop's first sequel, the studio made an inspired, but perhaps safe choice, regarding who the man to replace Verhoeven in the director's chair ought to be. Irvin Kershner was most notorious for having directed Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. With the enormous success and fan following for the Star Wars franchise that stemmed out of Empire, the studio was hopeful Kershner would be able to inspire the same sort of mega-fandom by directing RoboCop 2. So, how does RoboCop 2 manage as a piece of cinema, sequel or not?

Screenwriters Frank Miller and Walon Green recognized what worked in the first RoboCop and utilized these elements that made that movie both a box-office success and a piece of social commentary for their sequel. While there are fewer, randomly placed fake advertisements in RoboCop 2, the film does try to make some claims about consumerism, however, it is clear that these claims aren't the main focus of the overall point of the movie and that they in no way differ from what was already said in Verhoeven's first film. OCP is still an evil corporation that wants to privatize the municipal elements of Detroit simply for profitable gains. Nothing's changed at all.

The main focus of RoboCop 2 is the conundrum of a mass drug addiction epidemic - one that was mirrored by an occurring drug problem in the United States for years up to this point, and had really reached a boiling point around this time due to the government's declared War on Drugs initiative. With their script, and with Kershner's more than capable direction, Miller and Green attempted to create a commentary on a city (or a nation) plagued with a drug problem, and how said problem interacted with the corrupt business dealings and hostile corporate takeovers of governmental legislation that were simultaneously occurring.

If this sounds like it's too big of a quandary for an action/science-fiction film that is also trying to sell tickets and be entertaining enough to pull in theater patrons to try to make a logical point on, it's because it is. RoboCop 2 manages to fail in regards to making any kind of point on all of these societal evils that it exploits to craft its own story - other than, of course, what had already been said in the first movie. There is one moment within the film that must be commended for coming the closest to some sort of tangible societal commentary on these issues. In an exchange between the city's mayor and several council members, a drug lord offers to bail out the city's financial debt to the evil corporations. In exchange, the mayor would decriminalize the narcotic being sold, allowing for it to essentially be a legal and marketable product and for him to become a hero for "ridding the streets of crime." In this moment, Kershner, Miller, and Green seem to be making a commentary on the legalization of illegal substances in order to create a direct revenue stream for the government outside of corporate donations and influence. To top this off, the scene is interrupted by a literal killing machine that massacres all of them, a machine designed and sent by the corporations to do so, so that business can continue as usual with them at the top and in power. This scene, as remarkably brilliant as it is, unfortunately doesn't last long enough for its point to fully resonate. In the first RoboCop, the commentary was tangible throughout. Here, its clarity is only present in this all too brief scene.

Despite failing to live up to its predecessor's intelligent commentary, RoboCop 2 proves to be an entertaining enough action film on its own. Kershner, as evidenced by his handling of films like Empire and the James Bond movie Never Say Never Again, clearly knew how to orchestrate engaging sequences of violence and action, and RoboCop 2 delivers on both. A chop-shop sequence, where the hero is literally torn to pieces is intense to watch unfold - mainly for its lack of on screen violence (oil spraying instead of blood is a nice touch). An all out raid upon a warehouse toward the end of the film's second act proves to be the major highlight, and its great to see the clunky hero chasing after criminals in edge of your seat action that reminds viewers why they love these types of films in the first place. The climax battle does fall a little flat, but this again is because it is a retread of the confrontation in the first RoboCop. We've seen the hero battle a larger, more powerful cyborg before. Here it becomes redundant and boring.

The performances are decent enough in RoboCop 2. Peter Weller is great as Murphy yet again, but much is missing in regards to his human elements. What made Murphy great in the first RoboCop was his internal struggle between his past human life and his mechanical duties in the present to his corporate superiors. Murphy's memories are quickly fed to the audience in the first moments of RoboCop 2 but they're unfortunately just as quickly pushed aside and never brought back up. Nancy Allen, unfortunately, is underutilized in this film and her presence feels obligatory at best. In the first film she helped Murphy to remember who he was. Here, she's just sort of taking up space. Daniel O'Herlihy is wonderful as the OCP CEO hellbent on taking over Detroit for profit, and likewise Tom Noonan does an amazing job as the pseudo-religious drug kingpin, equally driven by profit and capital.

While it's nowhere near as intelligent as its predecessor and therefore hardly merits discussion regarding motion-pictures with any sort of societal worth or commentary, RoboCop 2 does prove to be an entertaining action movie that was constructed by a more than capable group of writers and a competent, and arguably under-appreciated, filmmaker with the pieces they were dealt. It's not a complete waste of time, and anyone who wishes to watch the film, again, keeping in mind that it won't live up to the same standards as its predecessor ahead of screening it, won't find it to be a painful viewing experience.

5/10

DRACULA (1931) - Review

Dracula

Fantasy/Horror
1 hour and 15 minutes
Rated: Not Rated

Written by: Garrett Fort
Directed by: Tod Browning
Produced by: Tod Browning & Carl Laemmle, Jr.

Cast:
Bela Lugosi
Helen Chandler
David Manners
Dwight Frye
Edward Van Sloan

The story of the strangest Passion the world has ever known!

By 1931, Universal Studios had managed to make a great deal of money off of their first two monster-related pictures: The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1923 and The Phantom of the Opera in 1925, both silent films that featured Lon Chaney as the iconic tragic figures of the tales. It was clear by the success of these two films that there was a clear and undeniable market within the horror genre, and Universal was eager to bleed that vein of success, especially with the advent of technology that allowed for sound to be synched with film effectively doing away with the silent-film era. Universal's first choice for a horror film in the talking-pictures era proved to be another enormous success for the studio: Dracula.

Dracula had already been adapted illegally in 1922 by German expressionist filmmaker F.W. Murnau with his movie Nosferatu. Due to this snafu, and the courts' ruling in favor of Stoker's widow in the following plagiarism lawsuit, producer Carl Laemmle, Jr. acquired the rights for Stoker's novel legally to ensure that nothing would derail the potential success of the film. But Laemmle didn't have to work hard in order to ensure that Dracula would be a success with audiences. It had already been adapted into a Broadway stage play that was receiving enormous success, and rather than align the film as closely to the book as possible, Laemmle and director Tod Browning opted instead to make the film version of Dracula resemble the play that audiences had come to adore. It was a safe move that, again, all but ensured the enormous success of the movie before it had even been released.

Tod Browning's Dracula proves to be an incredible movie, even still nearly ninety years after its release - and yet it is not a film without its shortcomings. For starters, the direction is brilliant. Browning's management of sequences and placement of performers within as well as their relation to the camera is extraordinary to behold. There are moments when the characters appear to be swallowed up whole by the enormous and breathtaking sets. In these moments, Browning and cinematographer Karl Freund wisely decided to utilize long shots effectively allowing for the sets to become a new character all on their own and push forward a breath of dread and gothic despair into the overall atmosphere. In other sequences, Browning and Freund just as wisely utilize tighter shots. There is one moment in particular where Count Dracula confronts Van Helsing in the home of Dr. Seward. This set is neither impressive nor is it meant to be viewed as another character the way that the sanitarium or Dracula's castle are, and because of this Browning cleverly lets the film's actors carry the scene instead of the surrounding atmosphere. It's truly easy to see just how brilliant of a filmmaker Tod Browning was based on the varying sequences throughout Dracula.

As already stated, Karl Freund's cinematography is remarkable to behold, and the lighting in many of the sequences is just astounding. It becomes clear based on Freund's lighting cues just where our attention as an audience should lie - on the sets or on the performers. Milton Carruth and Maurice Pivar's editing proves effective, most notably in sequences involving Dracula's transformations or his attacking of his victims. By leaving both off screen, a decision that was surely just as much Browning's as it was the film's editors, the movie takes on another level of dread allowing audiences to imagine those images for themselves. The surprising lack of a score also allows for dread to settle into the minds of the audience. Sequences where Dracula attacks and stalks his victims are riddled with tension-building silence.

Obviously, besides the sets, the most impressive thing about Dracula is its performances, namely one in particular. The supporting cast is relatively overshadowed by the talent of the film's black-cloaked leading role, but there are some who do standout and manage to hold their own against Lugosi. Edward Van Sloan as Van Helsing is terrific, and while he isn't as memorable as Lugosi's Count Dracula, Van Sloan's Van Helsing has some incredible moments in the film - in particular the already mentioned sequence between Van Helsing and Dracula in the home of Dr. Seward. Equally impressive is Dwight Frye's performance as Renfield. Renfield's character takes the place of Harker's from the novel, traveling to Transylvania to Castle Dracula in the film's first act. Frye's performance as the raving mad lunatic Renfield is both believable and at times truly scary. The image of him laughing below deck in the ship, staring up into the light at the men who have discovered him, is perhaps the most terrifying moment in the entire movie. There's a reason why rocker Alice Cooper appropriated the performer's name for a song about a madman decades later.

But it is, to no one's surprise, Bela Lugosi's performance as Count Dracula that really remains the number one reason why anyone ought to see Dracula all these years later. What is perhaps most surprising is that Laemmle and the other Universal executives did not originally want Lugosi to play Dracula in the film. Lugosi ultimately took an incredibly low salary for the film and lobbied against the producers until they relented and allowed for him to play the role that he had made famous on Broadway. Lugosi's Count Dracula, whether anyone has seen this film version of Dracula or not, remains so iconic that most individuals think of him first when the character is brought up - the widows peak, the piercing eyes, the Eastern European accent, the claw-like hands, the pale, bloodless face, and the raised eyebrows. Lugosi was a performer that could say and do more with an expression than most actors could deliver out of an entire film's performance. While Dracula may not be Lugosi's best movie, it will always be his most iconic movie - and it's very clear to see why.

Browning's Dracula does have its issues despite it being such an iconic piece of cinema. The comedic relief of both the maid and orderly characters feels misplaced and out of touch with the film's atmosphere, even by the standards of the 1930s. By injecting humorous characters who aren't actually funny into a gothic horror film, the audience is effectively drawn out of the viewing experience until those characters are removed from the scene. The biggest issue with the film though is that it doesn't follow Stoker's novel closely at all. As previously mentioned, this is an adaptation of the stage play which differs largely from Stoker's novel. Unfortunately, because of this the movie moves too quickly. We are never given time to get to know the characters more intimately the way that we do in the novel, so that when they're thrown into this whirlwind of nightmarish dread, it's entirely too difficult to really care one way or the other what happens to them. Similarly, the film's denouement seems to happen much too rapidly, leaving one wondering if it was that easy then why were any of these characters so afraid of Dracula from the start?

While Tod Browning's Dracula isn't without its flaws, it still remains to this day an iconic piece of cinematic history that showcases the talents of both a filmmaker and performer of yesteryear who both went largely unappreciated by the general public despite all of their respective aptitude.

8/10

THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT (2018) - Review

The Strangers: Prey at Night

Horror
1 hour and 25 minutes
Rated: R

Written by: Bryan Bertino & Ben Ketai
Directed by: Johannes Roberts
Produced by: Babak Eftekhari, Wayne Marc Godfrey, James Harris, Robert Jones, Ryan Kavanaugh, and Mark Lane

Cast:
Christina Hendricks
Martin Henderson
Bailee Madison
Lewis Pullman

Let us prey

In 2008, filmmaker Bryan Bertino unleashed upon audiences his low-budget, shocking home invasion horror film The Strangers which wound up being a surprising, but not unworthy, box-office success. Made on a budget of roughly nine million dollars, Bertino's film managed to rake in more than eighty million in profits when it was all said and done. The film's success was largely in part due to it being a movie that relied heavily on a simple storyline that effectively played off of audiences fears. This wasn't just a home invasion film about killers trying to get inside a home and murder their victims. This was a much more sinister story, where the killers didn't just want to end the lives of their victims, but also do everything in their power to express complete and total control over their victims by psychologically messing with their heads. This in effect, was also carried over onto the audience - allowing us as viewers to share in the fears and horrors of the onscreen characters as the nightmare played out. With the massive success of the film, Bertino promised almost immediately afterwards that there would be a sequel. A decade later, we've been given another chapter in this nightmarish saga.

The Strangers: Prey at Night is unquestionably a motion-picture that exists solely because its predecessor made money. There was absolutely no way that it was mapped out from the start. If Bertino had always intended there to be a sequel to his first flick, then The Strangers: Prey at Night more than likely would not have taken ten years to have been made, and Bertino would have had more control over the project than just a writer's credit. When the filmmaker of an original film steps aside for someone else to take the reins for the follow-up movie, it's usually not a good sign. Director Johannes Roberts ultimately has created a mixed-bag film that suffers from several problematic issues, but does, in fact, still manage to have some enjoyable qualities as well.

The film's storyline is both its biggest asset as well as its most problematic issue. For the entire first half of the film, Roberts seems to be attempting to remake the first film in every way possible. While there are now four victims instead of two, and the action takes place in a deserted trailer park instead of a house in the woods, Roberts tries to tap into the vein of the first movie by recreating the scares that worked so effectively in Bertino's movie, but here fall flat. The victims are toyed with in menacing fashion by their victimizers, the same obstacles are put in place (mainly phones being destroyed off-screen and victims discovering them later, total seclusion with escape seeming impossible, etc.), and even atmospherically, The Strangers: Prey at Night feels like a rehashing of The Strangers. As the victims peer outside windows we find ourselves, just like them, checking the shadows and looking for stalking figures on screen who may be watching them. This is ultimately problematic for one major reason: it no longer works. Bertino was lucky in that his film tapped into a raw and visceral horror that no one in its audience was expecting. Roberts isn't so lucky. By repeating the tones and atmospheres of the first movie in the first half of The Strangers: Prey at Night, we as an audience are ultimately ready for it and it doesn't work this time around. Ultimately, this first half - what could conceivably be called the "true horror" segment of the film - is not scary in anyway. It's a dull rehashing of something we have already experienced.

Partly to blame for helping with this rehashing - although not nearly as much as Johannes Roberts and Ben Ketai - are the film's technical decisions. Cinematographer Ryan Samul creates a dark and shadowy environment that's largely desaturated of color. It's an image that looks damn near identical to the images of the first film, and it does not help in anyway to differentiate The Strangers: Prey at Night from The Strangers. Editor Martin Brinkler allows for certain shots to linger perhaps longer than they should in attempt to create the same paranoia that the first film did. It's lazy recycling at its worst, and ultimately contributes to the first half of The Strangers: Prey at Night feeling like an unbearable revamping of The Strangers. Also, largely unimpressive, although not nearly as problematic as the already mentioned qualities, is the film's score, composed by Adrian Johnston. The piano/synth riff ultimately feels like something ripped off of a John Carpenter soundtrack or a Nox Arcana album, and although it may pair nicely with the mixing of 1980s pop tunes that work their way into the soundtrack, the score does nothing to either escalate the tension or create an atmosphere of dread.

It should be noted that it's been mentioned in this review that not only is the film's story its most problematic issue, but also its biggest asset. This essentially doesn't come into play though until right around halfway through the movie, where in an incredibly brilliant scene - one that will have you looking at swimming pools, light-up palm trees, and Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" through completely different eyes in the future - the tone of the film shifts entirely, and The Strangers: Prey at Night effectively comes into its own by shedding the influences of its predecessor and trudging down a path not taken by Bertino's film. This is where the movie announces to its audience that all bets are off, and that this is no longer the rehashed invasion/stalker movie we were expecting, but a gut-churning survivalist film instead. In the above scene mentioned - the one with the swimming pool and Bonnie Tyler - Roberts manages to create a level of tension and dread that was missing from the first half of the movie. From here going forward, The Strangers: Prey at Night embraces its new identity and manages to create some engaging and memorable moments. With its heavy-handed homage to the ending of Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as well as its questioning denouement aside, the second half of The Strangers: Prey at Night is an unexpectedly fun, tension-filled, survivalist horror movie that will leave audiences smiling, but perhaps confused or even angry as to why that wasn't the overall tone of the movie from the start.

The performances in The Strangers: Prey at Night, are largely what's to be expected from actors in this kind of movie. No one really shines to the point of brilliance on the screen, and due to its short running time, we are not given enough screen time to get to relate to the victims before they're ultimately submitted to the horrors of the plot in order to feel enough real empathy with them. Bailee Madison and Lewis Pullman are perhaps exceptions to this, coming the closest to reaching those qualities, and once the film comes into its own after the tonal shift, both performers do manage to win over the audience's affection and praise - Madison especially.

The Strangers: Prey at Night manages to be one of those motion-pictures that is both completely damned by its storyline but also earns redeemable points with its audience because of it. Director Johannes Roberts unfortunately falls into the trap of trying to recreate the magic of the film's predecessor and because of this, is responsible for the first half of his movie falling completely flat. However, once the film discovers its own identity, sheds its linkage to the first movie, and takes the audience in an unexplored and unexpected direction, The Strangers: Prey at Night manages to be an engaging film that will probably leave most viewers feeling like they didn't completely waste their time and energy by seeing it.

6/10

NIGHTMARE CITY (1980) - Review

Nightmare City

Horror/Sci-Fi/Thriller
1 hour and 28 minutes
Rated: Not Rated

Written by: Antonio Cesare Corti, Luis María Delgado, and Piero Regnoli
Directed by: Umberto Lenzi
Produced by: Diego Alchimede & Luis Méndez

Cast:
Hugo Stiglitz
Laura Trotter
Maria Rosaria Omaggio
Mel Ferrer

The Nightmare Becomes Reality

After the outstanding box-office success of George A. Romero's zombie film Dawn of the Dead, a slew of imposter movies were created in rapid-fire succession, released upon the theater attending public like a horde of undead flesh eaters. Most famously was Italian Godfather of Gore Lucio Fulci's film Zombie, which was released one year after Romero's film and was also an international box-office success. With the surprise success of Fulci's Zombie, other Italian filmmakers were looking to cash in quick on the zombie craze before audiences became corpse-cold to the overall premise. One of those Italian filmmakers was Umberto Lenzi, who previously had proven himself a capable filmmaker with various different genre entries stemming from gladiator films to gialli flicks.

But Nightmare City could hardly be described as being Lenzi's first project pertaining to flesh eaters. Five years prior, Lenzi directed the jungle adventure film Man from Deep River which has gone on to be debatably called the first ever cannibal movie. That being said, if Man from Deep River's focus on cannibalism remains questionable, there can be no doubt about the consumption of flesh being the main topic of discussion in Nightmare City.

Perhaps looking to differentiate himself from both Romero and Fulci, Lenzi opts to give an explanation regarding the cause of the film's flesh eaters' motivations. Borrowing a hinted at solution from Romero's earlier zombie film Night of the Living Dead, Nightmare City lets its audience in on the fact that its zombies aren't technically zombies at all, but infected human beings. These flesh eaters have been over exposed to nuclear radiation, which in turn has altered both their physical flesh and their mental instincts. Nightmare City sets itself apart from both Dawn of the Dead and Zombie, aligning itself more closely with yet another earlier Romero film, The Crazies, by being a contagion film instead of a true blue zombie movie. The differences are subtle on face value, but here one does not see the slow meandering zombies that Romero popularized. These infected people can run and utilize weapons when it comes to hunting down their human prey. It is something that Lenzi ultimately is able to get away with purely because the film sets the clear distinction in place from the minute the bloody mayhem begins.

Speaking of the bloody mayhem, Nightmare City's gore effects are unquestionably its strongest asset. Special effects artists Franco Di Girolamo and Giuseppe Ferranti clearly saw the extreme levels of blood and guts that this subgenre of horror was destined for with future films like Romero's Day of the Dead and Fulci's The Beyond, and boy do they deliver the goods. Multiple heads are shown to explode from gunshots in fantastic close-ups, a man is impaled by a speargun, multiple stabbings become the norm, and there's even a tip of the hat to Zombie in an intensely graphic eye gouging sequence. Perhaps the most upsetting and arguably most unnecessary effects deal with two sequences where separate female characters have their breasts mutilated in horribly graphic detail. This obsession with breast mutilation is showcased in other films of Lenzi's, such as Cannibal Ferox, and is undeniably sexist. There's a line between a good bit of graphic fun in the name of good-humored horror films, and too much existing only for sadistic purposes of the filmmakers. Unfortunately, this is a line that Lenzi was often times quite fond of crossing throughout the course of his career. Nevertheless, the gore effects, for the most part, do remain both impressive and fun. Equally impressive are the film's makeup effects, also handled by Di Girolamo and Ferranti. The infected people look wildly different from the decayed zombies of Fulci's and Romero's films, as is the intention. Here we see various degrees of what appear to be burned and disfigured individuals, or more or less what one would expect to happen to the human body if one were exposed to high amounts of nuclear radiation.

Unfortunately, despite its radically different storyline from the zombie films before it (not including the contagion flick The Crazies, as mentioned), Nightmare City remains a rather dull and unimpressive film when it comes to its story. Not much really occurs in the way of plot. Once the infection is introduced, we're taken from one character to another who either thwart off their attackers, or succumb to a grim and brutal fate. This continues all the way until the film's third act. No stakes are ever raised, no potential cure is introduced, and ultimately, because of its switching between so many characters, no real connections can be made by the audience to the characters they are watching. Perhaps even more damning than its dull storyline though is Nightmare City's plot twist, delivered as the surprise conclusion of its climax. While the twist is shocking, it is only so because of just how unbelievable it is. What Lenzi essentially does is pull the rug out from underneath the audience, hitting them over the head with such a drastic twist, then asks that the slate be wiped clean entirely regarding the previous majority of the film that has just been watched. It of course ends on a "cliff hanger" letting us wonder if what we had seen already happened, didn't happen but is about to, or won't happen at all. It's a bit unfortunate and feels more as if writers Antonio Cesare Corti, Luis María Delgado, and Piero Regnoli were just out of ideas by the time they reached the end of their script and inserted the most ludicrous conclusion they could come up with.

The performances in Nightmare City are entirely unimpressive, the biggest contributor to said problem being the already mentioned lack of time spent with the characters to provide for a more intimate connection between them and the audience. Laura Trotter manages to scream her head off like any other typecast blonde in a horror movie, but that's really the extent of her contributions. Mel Ferrer as the in charge general never feels threatening nor important enough to be a focus to the story's overall point. In fact, he has nothing more to do than offer up exposition. The film's hero of course is meant to be Hugo Stiglitz's character, but perhaps the only impressive thing about Stiglitz is his beard.

Nightmare City is not without its charms though. Other than the already mentioned brilliant special effects work, the film boasts a terrific score. Composer Stelvio Cipriani delivers a nice 1980s-style synth score that, while isn't anywhere near as brilliant as Goblin's score for Dawn of the Dead or Fabio Frizzi's and Giorgio Tucci's score for Zombie, manages to hone in on the same fun and entertaining atmosphere that the two more successful films had. Lenzi, for all of his bad qualities, does manage to create some rather brilliant and engaging moments within Nightmare City that are frightening and riddled with tension. A sequence where Laura Trotter's character is searching through a hospital with no power and comes across some infected individuals is rather creepy, and, similarly, a sequence regarding a young couple being killed along a country roadside is heartbreaking to watch - perhaps in regards to how close this movie came out to the real-life Zodiac murders and the murders committed by Ted Bundy. The film's climax, set in an abandoned amusement park, where both Stiglitz's character as well as Trotter's have to fend off an impossibly large horde of infected monsters is the kind of edge of your seat excitement that should have been present throughout the entirety of Nightmare City.

Despite some problematic issues, including a dull storyline, characters that remain rather unimpressive, a ludicrous twist conclusion, and some blatantly sexist undertones which seemed to be a theme in the filmmaker's canon, Nightmare City remains a decently impressive entry into the zombie-movie archives largely for its attempts to differentiate itself from the more popular films that had come before it, thus setting a precedent for later, more successful, contagion films that would follow in its footsteps.

6/10

THE DECAMERON (1971) - Review

The Decameron

Comedy/Drama/History
1 hour and 51 minutes
Rated: R

Written by: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Directed by: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Produced by: Alberto Grimaldi

Cast:
Franco Citti
Ninetto Davoli
Pier Paolo Pasolini

The World's First and Still the Greatest Erotic Masterpiece. Now brought to the screen with all the genius of Pier Paolo Pasolini

For his first entry into what would become known as his Trilogy of Life films, infamous Italian arthouse director Pier Paolo Pasolini would choose to adapt Giovanni Boccaccio's fourteenth century tale of sex, sin, and mayhem. And with the exception of transposing the stories within from Florence to Naples, Pasolini, to his credit, managed to keep a massive level of respect for the source material at hand by not altering the stories within to extreme degrees.

It would seem that Boccaccio's fourteenth century book of tales was tailor made for Pasolini, as would also seem the case for the other two sources for the second and third installments in Pasolini's Trilogy of Life: The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights. All three contain stories that swirl around and make excessive commentary about sex, love, religion, hypocrisy, poverty, deceit, and power - ideas that Pasolini attempted to explore profoundly in essentially all of his works. The Decameron, though, in particular, seems to set itself apart from the other two films by making great use of the director's ability to create moments that are undeniably funny.

It is the comedy of The Decameron that gives it a level of genius that while perhaps isn't on par with Pasolini's exploration of power in his later film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, it does make the movie enjoyable to behold. While unquestionably Pasolini was probably more interested in exploring ideas of sex and deception, his utilization of humor in these sequences actually tends to outshine any other motives he may have had. Because it is such a lengthy film, there are sequences within that fall short. But the ones that are funny are marvelously so. In fact, what is perhaps most brilliant is Pasolini's use of various types of humor throughout the film. There's humor that feels more slapstick in nature, such as a story's hero falling into a vat of excrement, then of course there's deceptive humor such as when a tricky gardener reveals to a convent of horny nuns that he hasn't been mute or deaf all along and is well aware of their scandalous secrets. By having the delivery of the humor change throughout, Pasolini is able to keep this otherwise ancient and stale content all the more engaging. He had essentially, and perhaps wisely, tapped into the very essence of what has allowed Boccaccio's text to survive and be read for centuries after its creation.

The film is absolutely stunning to behold. Cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli captures urban towns, and rural countrysides with extraordinary beauty. There's an overall washed out tone to the film, that gives it a feeling of ancient quality - allowing for what is being seen to really be believed as being the fourteenth century. Also contributing to this are the film's wonderful costumes created by Danilo Donati. Donati's creations range from the vibrant to the bland, and mirror the blend of individuals one would sure find passing each other on the streets of fourteenth century Naples.

Because the stories of The Decameron move at a very quick speed, never allowing us as viewers to spend more than perhaps five minutes or so with a particular vignette, the performances within never amount to anything that is profound or remarkable. That being said, none fo the performers deliver bad performances, and many remain memorable for their signature Italian mannerisms that are altogether extremely charming and add to the overall humor and good nature of the film. Perhaps the only performance within the movie that feels out of place is the director's own cameo as a painter. Pasolini is seen in a sequence that is returned to throughout the film, painting a fresco inside of a monastery. By the film's end his fellow artists and the priests praise him for his work - an unfinished mural. What is being said here seems confusing. Was Pasolini commenting on his thoughts that perhaps the film itself was unfinished, but in its unfinished nature had reached a state of completion? This sequence overall, again, feels out of place with the humor and good nature of the rest of the film.

As stated above The Decameron is a long movie, filled with a lot of small vignettes. Because of this, the overall pace of the film does feel slow and as if it is lagging. It'd be impossible for any viewer not to start getting antsy by the film's second act, no matter how entertained they are by the various vignettes. Another, perhaps shocking, downfall of the film is its score. Legendary composer Ennio Morricone is responsible for this, and it is by far and away quite possibly his most unimpressive work. Then again, this could just seem to be the case given the score of The Decameron failing to reach any sort of masterful levels that Morricone is more than capable of.

While it may have been one of Pasolini's most successful motion-pictures, The Decameron is a lengthy film that ultimately suffers in being too long for its own good. Various vignettes within will leave viewers scratching their heads and wondering what they had to do with the overall themes and ideas that are being explored. Still, Pasolini's grasp for what is humorous and the overall beautiful cinematography and costumes make The Decameron an all around entertaining film, that any movie lover - especially those who enjoy foreign cinema - will find endearing.

6.5/10

LADY SNOWBLOOD 2: LOVE SONG OF VENGEANCE (1974) - Review

Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance

Drama/Thriller
1 hour and 29 minutes
Rated: Not Rated

Written by: Kiyohide Ohara & Norio Osada
Directed by: Toshiya Fujita
Produced by: Kikumaru Okuda

Cast:
Meiko Kaji
Yoshio Harada
Juzo Itami
Kazuko Yoshiyuki

Following the enormous success of legendary Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's samurai movies, such as Yojimbo, Sanjuro, and of course the epic Seven Samurai, Japanese filmmakers began churning out violent samurai films at an enormous rate to the point that these films earned a genre title all of their own: Chambara, a term which essentially translates into the process of adapting the fighting arts into films. Chambara films didn't necessarily have to pertain to swordplay, but again, largely following the success of Kurosawa's films, most of them did.

In 1973, Korean born filmmaker Toshiya Fujita released his masterpiece of cinematic, blood-soaked vengeance, Lady Snowblood, which performed enormously well throughout the world (better than most would expect a Japanese exploitation film would perform, anyway). The story was based on a popular manga and showcased an iconic performance by Japanese actress/singer Meiko Kaji as the titular figure. The story's simplistic plot of revenge, its enormously bloody sword fights, and of course its stunning cinematography all helped in its becoming an iconic piece of exploitation cinema. Perhaps it isn't that surprising then, given its success, that Fujita decided to follow up Lady Snowblood with a sequel in as little time as possible, in order to exploit and build upon the success of the first film.

Thus, Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance was born. Like with its predecessor, Fujita chose to utilize the already written manga again for inspiration regarding the story's sequel. This would prove perhaps to be an inconsequential decision for multiple reasons. The first Lady Snowblood was a straightforward revenge story, that's biggest strength was its plot's simplicity. While it undeniably had undertones of a political nature, none of those sentiments boiled up enough to permeate through the surface layers of the film, and merely helped to serve with the backdrop of turn of the century Japan that the film was set against. In Lady Snowblood 2, however, politics have taken over completely, and serve as the main catalyst to the film's "vengeance" that follows. Whereas in the first film, audiences saw violent acts of rape and murder springing revenge into action, in the sequel, Meiko's titular hero doesn't become inspired by vengeance until the violent politics of the era have caused those whom she cares about, or rather those she owes her life to, to be killed or hurt in some horrific and violent manner. Meiko's hero Yuki, in fact, at first joins forces with a self-proclaimed anarchist in order to attack the very corrupt government officials who freed her from the gallows. While perhaps this all made sense in the manga source material, over the course of the two films it seems completely preposterous. Yuki is a revenge driven figure in the first film with no affiliations to anyone but those whom she had loved - her family. Her desire to join forces with someone for their political motivations, no matter how just they are framed to be in the context of the story, seem totally out of character for her.

Equally uninspiring are the film's technical qualities. The first Lady Snowblood had brilliant cinematography that captured its violent sequences in an absolutely stunning and gorgeous manner. Sword fights played out like beautiful operas, with the crimson fountains of over exaggerated wounds spewing blood across white snowy surfaces and the walls of beautiful palaces. Here, in the sequel, cinematographer Tatsuo Suzuki, who did not photograph the first film, does nothing to replicate this. In fact, much of the sword fights in Lady Snowblood 2 feel dull in nature. They lack the blood and mayhem of the original just as much as they do the beauty. And as this is a politically driven plot, the sword fights feel few and far between. The film's final showdown does reach a closeness to the quality of the original film's, but it still falls short in the grand scope of things. The film's soundtrack by composer Kenjiro Hirose feels bizarre and again, completely different from what was in the first film. Perhaps the music would have been better suited for a spaghetti western, for there are moments that feel very Ennio Morricone-esque in nature.

Besides all of its problems, Lady Snowblood 2 does manage to maintain some captivating and engaging moments. As previously stated, the film's final showdown is a worthy conclusion and is absolutely brilliant in execution. The gore effects are astounding, especially in two particularly nasty moments of eye-gouging that will make all gore-hounds and exploitation fans cheer with joy, and would undeniably bring a tear of happiness to the eye of someone like Lucio Fulci - the king of eyeball torture in cinema. Meiko Kaji is terrific as the film's hero again, and it is perhaps all too unfortunate this badass woman of cinema isn't as world renowned as she ought to be. The other performers are equally engaging, with the film's capitalist-driven villains being the most entertaining to watch perform. 

While Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance can't manage to live up to the amazing qualities of its predecessor, it still remains a fun chambara film with enough engaging qualities that it will undeniably give those who adore this kind of film an overall sense of satisfaction with the end product. It fails in ambition, it fails in beauty, and it fails in grasping onto the knowledge of what made the first film so brilliant - but nevertheless, you'll still have a blood-soaked good time with the end product.

6.5/10