Today I realised I was over half way. Not in days, but in movies seen off my list. Because it's only been 1 or 2 per day so far, it hasn't seemed like a lot. Someone asked if I was sick of it yet, I said "no way!" And that is a good thing, because tonight I saw the best movie I've seen at the festival so far, and one of the best movies I've seen this year!
Movie # 16 today was 'Django', another spaghetti western directed by Sergio Corbucci (who also directed 'The Mercenary' which I saw earlier this week). This was made in 1966 and introduced the character of Django, who proved very popular and spawned a series of sequels and imitators using the character named Django. Django you see is a bit of an anti-hero, a man with a heart grown cold following the (implied) killing of the woman he loved and who will basically do anything for adventure and gold. It's a very similar character to the one in 'The Mercenary' and since they are both played by Franco Nero, I couldn't help but compare the two. I found 'The Mercernary' to be funnier and more fun, whereas 'Django' is a much more bleak film in theme and setting.
A lone stranger walks into a mud splattered, rain soaked ghost town in southern California, dragging a coffin and holding a girl he's rescued from bandits. The only place in town that is open is a bar/brothel which has survived by servicing the rival gangs of the Mexicans who have crossed the border to formulate plans for a revolution against the army in Mexico, and a nasty gang of racist Californians who wear red hoods and scarves (KKK beginnings?). Returning the girl is likely to bring trouble from both gangs, and the scene is set for a showdown. Django doesn't seem afraid though, and when you see what he has in that coffin, you'll know why. What follows is a tale of cold hearted killing, double crossing and revenge. At the time, the violence was regarded as being quite brutal and while it would be fairly tame these days, some scenes were a bit uncomfortable. Django is a pretty cool character but I found it a little too bleak to be enjoyable and probably preferred 'The Mercenary' of the two selections.
Friday night and movie #17 rolled around and one with a bit of anticipation based on the description alone. 'God Bless America' did not disappoint, I would rate this as one of the best movies I've seen so far this year. This is a movie which dares to say what we are all thinking - that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, with the death of manners, kindness to our fellow human beings, and common decency.
'God Bless America' is an extremely dark comedy that will appeal to anyone who has thought that American culture is leading to a dumbing down in society and destroying the values of a civilised culture. Obsession with fame, reality TV, talking head TV shows, self-centredness, stupidity and misguided patriotism are some of the chief culprits and targets of this incredibly black comedy. Frank is a man who has been pushed down, by the divorce from his wife who has moved on with a younger man, the disaffection of his daughter, being terminated from his job over a ridiculous harrassment claim and finding out he has an inoperable brain tumour. An intelligent man who values being nice above everything, he despairs over the vapidity and stupidity he sees all around him at home (the opening scene where he takes spectacularly bloody revenge on his annoying neighbours in a dream shocks you from the outset so that what follows doesn't seem quite so bad), at work and on TV and the radio. He's been pushed a tad too far by this recent bad news and snaps when he sees a whiny teen pricess on TV having a tantrum about her parents buying her the 'wrong car' for her sweet 16th. Taking out his gun, he decides to take out Chloe to rid the world of this nasty girl who values all the wrong qualities. A classmate of Chloe's witnesses the incident and is delighted with the outcome as she too sees many things wrong with a world that looks up to people like Chloe. Stopping Frank from killing himself, Roxy convinces him to make this an ongoing concern and take her along for the ride.
What follows is an insanely violent but hilarious road trip as the perfectly matched pair of killers try to pick the ultimate victims to get their point across, but their motives are continually misunderstood by the media. The climax at the finale of the fake pop star show American Superstarz is an absolutely scathing attack on both the makers and participants of these shows that set people up for ridicule as well as stardom.
We found ourselves agreeing with so much of this movie (although mental note, I have to stop giving high fives or else Frank and Roxy would be after me) and saying 'it's so true' a lot. Their discussions about their next potential victims cover a wide range of behaviour on the annoying scale but it is satisfying to see that they reserve their ire for those who really deserve to die. I won't give too much away though on that front.
This movie is excellent, balancing the extreme violence with a lot of laughs and never having the perpetrators violate their own (twisted) code of conduct - there is no inappropriate relationship a la Natural Born Killers here. In fact, despite the similarities in storyline I did not think of NBK at all while watching this. It's much more concerned with righting the world's wrongs, just in the wrong way. I loved this movie. I highly recommend it. It's on again tonight at the Film Festival at 6:30pm.
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