Batman Returns- Or does he?

Batman is set to go up against The Penguin in this episode of Batman. On par with previous batman plots, the villain (Penguin) finds an accomplice villain, (businessman Schreck). Penguin wants to live on the surface and find his parents and he believes his ticket to this lifestyle change is Schreck. So he kidnaps him and blackmails him, the deal is, he won’t tell Gotham of his plans to wreak havoc on the city if he helps Penguin become an accepted part of the surface society. And, so, the two devise a plan to get Penguin elected as Mayor and turn the city into a black hole of crime. We get to meet Catwoman in this venture as well. She is the quirky secretary of Schreck, Selina Kyle. As a result of her overhearing his plan to take over Gotham, he shoves her out the window of their high-rise office building. Alley cats/kittens rescue her, subsequently causing her to “turn into” a cat-ish, Catwoman. She makes herself a crazy leather outfit and gloves fully equipped with super sharp, cat-like claws. There’s some romance between Selina Kyle (Catwoman) and Bruce Wayne (Batman), obviously. Batman seems genuinely interested, after-all he does portray a lonely and depressed character in this movie, but Catwoman seems to just be toying with him. Ultimately, her goal is to turn the city against Batman, which she doesn’t know is the Bruce Wayne she has an attraction toward, and she becomes “alliances” with Schreck and Penguin: Not for long though, because Penguin wants her for more than an alliance and she isn’t having it, so she soon becomes an enemy to him. But not before the two successfully begin the demise of Batman’s heroic reputation as we know it. As a press conference held by the Penguin as an effort to hammer in the last nails in his reputation’s coffin, Bruce Wayne and Alfred play a recording of the Penguin where he proclaims his anti-gotham stance. Penguin reveals his actual goal as seeking revenge on his parents, which he believes can be achieved by killing the wealthiest families first born sons. The movie ends with the usual action packed back and forth fight between good and evil, a quick involuntary recount by your brain of how many lives Catwoman has actually lost,  a penguin funeral,  a stray cat adoption?, and a happy-ish ending, until next time of course.

Burton immediately sets the dark depressing tone of the movie. A couple has a “baby” who doesn’t quite “fit in” so they hurl him into the icy river as if he were last week’s garbage. It was interesting to see a typical Tim Burton design sort of mesh with a typical Batman plot, except I don’t feel like it was a “typical” batman plot, ok mostly, but not completely. This film is artistically very pleasing to look at, I use the term “pleasing” loosely and just to describe the talented and brilliant mind behind it, but it is very dark, gloomy and depressing, far from emotionally pleasing. But, this is the mood that Burton knows is required in order to cohesively pull together each of the characters’ underlying stories that are being portrayed. A penguin boy neglected and left for dead by his very own parents, a man who has it all yet is still so greedy and full of destruction, a lonely, mousy and super awkward woman just trying to find her place, even Batman is very depressed, reclusive and confused, exuding the opposite of happy heroic characteristics one would expect out of a Super Hero, who mind you, was lucky enough to be “chosen” to do good for his city and have super abilities and endless access to stellar gadgets and cars. This movie is battling shame, acceptance, revenge, cruelty and an onslaught of other negative emotions and these are made clear by Burton. There were subtle Burton-esque pieces of humor thrown in, like when Catwoman is thrown from a building (again) and lands in a kitty litter truck, but all in all a pretty depressing film. I just, personally, would like to have a consistent feel good super hero who knows his place in the world as both a humanoid and a hero and can appreciate and differentiate between them both. Again, aesthetically beyond pleasing, but in my mind, the story could have used some oomph. Burton does a stellar job getting his vision across to viewers but I am wondering if maybe a slightly tweaked plot or character tune-up would have made for a much cleaner “Burton Batman”. Though, I can’t complain a lick about the sound, lighting, camera shots, set and costume design etc because it is evident that this film’s entire crew consists of professionals who have mastered their art and who know how to produce a technically sound film.

L’Atalante- Perfectly NOT impossibly romantic

A young woman, Juliette, marries a young man, Jean, who is a Captain on a barge. Juliette has been living in a small French town but she will now be living aboard the ship that her husband is the Captain of, Atalante. Among the two of them will also be a quirky second mate, Pere, and his many cats and a cabin boy. Through many stops and days of drifting, we experience small amounts of bickering between the newlyweds, happy barge songs from the boat crew, cats giving birth, cleaning, sewing, chow time and we experience the day to day life living aboard a barge, in what feels like, a pretty accurate depiction. Upon arriving to port in Paris, the one stop Juliette has been most excited about, she has already been experiencing a bit of cabin fever and has been longing for the chance to get off of the ship and explore. Jean promises they will go and explore and enjoy Paris together, but Pere and the cabin boy leave the ship first and stay gone well into the night. This of course causes more friction between Jean and Juliette, and Juliette is annoyed now and feels as if she will never get off the boat. When Pere and cabin boy finally return Jean and Juliette can embark on their own Paris journey. They go enjoy dinner and music but a street seller/magician interrupts their journey and ultimately causes a boatload of friction. He has the attention of Juliette, dances with her, bats his eyes at her, offers to take her exploring himself, gives her a scarf, all of which infuriates Jean, so he takes her back to the ship as if she were on restriction now, and then goes out to enjoy Paris on his own. When he returns Juliette pretends to be asleep so that Jean will leave her and she can then slip out and do a bit more site seeing on her own before they leave. When Jean discovers this, he becomes even angrier and decides to force an early departure, leaving Juliette in the city, all by herself, with nothing and no one. Through the next few stops we see Juliette kind of struggling to find money and a place to sleep, and Jean is becoming increasingly depressed. He misses and wants his wife. There is trouble with barge boss’ causing Pere to cover for Jean’s behavior and lack of work. Pere sees the only way to snap him out of it, is to go find Juliette and bring her back to Jean.

Considering the time in which this film was made, I was rather impressed with the camera shots, music, editing, props and overall great quality. We knew exactly what to feel and when to feel it, so staying engulfed in the story was a simple task. When we were to be happy, the music was happy. When we were to feel any other emotions of the characters, the background, music, and the characters themselves, led us right to those emotions. It was poetic and dreamy yet angering; mostly when Jean decides to just leave Juliette in an unknown city all by herself, call me crazy but that was upsetting! Their love story was never ending, even though we don’t get to see their initial “falling in love” because the movie begins after their wedding takes place, we do get to see them sort of fall in love and overcome some rocky obstacles that love often offers. This love story is beautifully outlined starting from the beginning, when the barge sets sail, Juliette romantically tells Jean that she knew he was her love before they met, he wants to know how and she explains that when she put her head under water, she saw his face, and when you put your head under the water you are supposed to see your true love. Jean, of course doesn’t believe it and playfully yet a smidge sarcastically, tries this method and proclaims that doesn’t see Juliette. This was when I began to see that there would be many obstacles that this young couple would have to overcome in their love story and I fully expected that the Director would portray these issues very well. Between the awkward scene where Juliette is in Pere’s room that sparks a fit rage/jealousy from Jean, the scenes with the overly flirtatious and pushy street performer/salesman/magician (I am still not sure what to consider him), which sparks the same fits from Jean, Jean’s overall seemingly hot temper, and Juliette’s spoiled and needy characteristics, some may be led to believe that the couple was headed for doom when we reached the final straw and Jean leaves Juliette in Paris. But over the next few scenes, a different, more loving side of Jean starts to be revealed and we can see that he genuinely misses his wife, though still impossibly stubborn, nonetheless definitely capable of love. At the moment when we pretty much feel the last nail has been driven into the coffin of this love story, Jean reaches a breaking point and Vigo and his talented crew, take us back to the method of finding love that Juliette first revealed at the beginning of the film. Jean jumps into the river and the most beautiful illusion of his love, Juliette, is revealed in front of his very own eyes, under water. The detail and time spent on this shot is key, because it’s at this moment that I felt Jean was actually ready for his love story to continue, with his love, his wife. Being the first French film that I have watched I must say thanks to Vigo and L’Atalante, it won’t be the last! It was beautifully shot, it was a realistic love story with cutesy highlights but also turmoil, it was not weathered with unrealistic, fancy, fantasy-esque, whimsical, nearly impossible to attain lifestyles, it wasn’t impossibly romantic, and the music choices were spot on.

Unthinkable- How far would you go?

An American suspect, of Islamic convert, sends a video to US government agencies, revealing that there are 3 nuclear bombs in 3 different undisclosed locations. He states that they are set to be detonated within the next week. The suspect whose family we are to believe has left him, allows himself to be caught by the authorities. Military intelligence, CIA and FBI are deployed into action with the clock ticking and they must find these nuclear bombs. They are given direct orders, from the president, via his messenger, that they must do everything in their power to get the locations and stop the bombs. This isn’t a job for just anybody, so they employ the one person who they know will pull out all of the stops, Humphries. H, seems to have a rapport with the authorities and president, he seems to be the go to guy to conduct interrogations that they know are going to be difficult and that are going to require some roughing up of the suspect. So, in an effort to do just what was ordered of him, “H”, immediately resorts to torture and beats up a military guard, in an effort to prove to younger that he has no limits, and that he will do what it takes and that those outside of that glass watching, will not be able to stop him. As the time is winding down, we see many back and forth, “this is wrong”, “no, this is necessary”, arguments and many moral conflicts between the characters. The search for Younger family, turns up fruitful and they try and use Younger’s wife as a ploy to get him talking, he obviously doesn’t and H is threatening her, but Brody and others in the room are fighting with him about leaving her alone, because she knows nothing, and as they attempt to take her out of the torture chamber, H slits her throat in front Younger. This doesn’t get him talking either, so H is pressed to do the “Unthinkable”, he brings in the children, the one topic that he discussed with Younger that showed his weak side, he gives up the location of 3 bombs, but H isn’t ready to release the children yet, because he knows there is a 4^th. The officials outside of the chamber freak out and don’t trust that H will not harm the children, so they blow open the door and take the kids, H comes out with a mathematical equation proving that Younger has in fact set a fourth bomb.

The Director wants to show us the inside workings of these covert operations, I believe he wants us to understand their magnitude and then ask ourselves, when force and torture seem to be the only options left, how far is too far when innocent lives are at stake? Do you save millions of citizens and your country from nuclear bombs at the expense of one troubled individual’s family, kids included? If this was in fact his intent, job well done.

 I think it’s important for citizens to see a movie like this and I am annoyed that it was not a widely released film, although I am sure that is because of its “political content”, nonetheless still annoying. While I understand it may seem, to some naïve minds, “far-fetched” that these types of incidences occur, and to others ethically wrong, I still believe it’s important to understand them, and see what it takes to go through with an interrogation like this. An interrogation, where you feel helpless, because you can’t get information out of a suspect and you know that in a few hours major cities are going to be blown up and thousands, maybe millions of lives are going to be lost: One where the interrogator has the most horrendous job in the world, he is never the hero, he is never appreciated, he is always the “bad guy”, and he knows it and he hates it, but he still does it to save you and I, the citizens on the outside with no clue what is going on, on the inside. I think the director hones in, remarkably, on a valid point and poses an important question, while urging viewers to step into the shoes of the potential victims and their loved ones, before casting judgment or anger onto the authorities. These authorities are faced with the ultimate decision of how to proceed successfully with extracting information from a heartless terrorist before lives are lost, some would argue that there is no limit on how far one should go in order to save lives, others would argue that using torture is morally unjust. I personally wish this film would have had a bigger release. The director, the cast, the sound and the dialogue are perfection. They facilitate the telling of this story greatly. The sounds in the torture chamber make you feel like you want to agree with Brody’s opinion, but then the story of H’s wife’s family, or the lie from younger about there being no bombs and an immediate report of a mall bomb with 53 casualties, brings you back to the side that says go for it, do what it takes because Younger is obviously heartless and willing to do what it takes to carry out his plan, so why shouldn’t we do what it takes to save our citizens. Then there are other times that you may want to side with Helen and her “it’s unconstitutional” babbling, you hear a line like “Helen, if those bombs go off there will be no fucking Constitution!”, a friendly reminder that the issue at hand is of a magnitude much larger than the pain felt by one perpetrator.  

Jaws- Sea Beast

The weekend of July 4^th is approaching, which is a particularly busy weekend for the beach town of Amity, the water is warm, the weather is perfect, and the town is gearing up for a successful and joyous celebration.. This particular holiday weekend tends to generate quite a bit of needed revenue, so the entire town takes their ability to appeal to tourists very serious. Days before July 4^th, during a little beach bonfire amongst friends, we see a young girl, Chrissy, slip away for a quick dip in the ocean, to never return. Her body parts begin to wash ashore and the new sheriff in town, Brody, immediately believes they have a shark problem. The Mayor brushes this claim aside, refusing to alert the future tourists of a shark problem, which would be detrimental to their businesses. Instead, the Mayor devises a plan to employ the town’s fisherman to capture the marine culprit before the busy weekend and before word gets out that a shark has attacked. Meanwhile, the Sheriff has called in a shark expert, Hooper. The town fishermen do catch a shark, and the Mayor is satisfied with this catch and is convinced he can open up the beaches. Hooper advises that this shark is not the shark that attacked the girl and advises against opening the beaches, to no avail, as the Mayor just won’t listen to reason.  Random day before the 4^th of July, beach goers are enjoying the beautiful weather, warm water and calm surf. Because the beaches are still open, to his dismay, Brody is on high alert. A young boy is floating on his yellow raft and is swiftly snatched up by the sea beast, right before Sherriff Brody and the beach goer’s eyes. The boy’s mother Ms. Kitner puts out a bounty for the sea beast. Hooper takes a look at the coroner report for Chrissy, and says there is no way a boat propeller mangled this girl, it was definitely a shark. Hooper and Brody take a trip out to sea at night and discover a local fisherman’s boat has been bitten and the body of the fisherman is alos present. They tow back the evidence and share it with the Mayor, they urged him to close the beaches, for the safety of the tourists, but despite their plea and overwhelming evidence, the Mayor keeps the beaches open. The 4^th of July comes and authorities are on high alert as tourists frolic in the sun, sand and water. Bordy’s son Michael is almost eaten by the beast, but was spared at the expense of a man in a rowboat. The Mayor, after being scolded once again by a shaken Brody, agrees to allow Brody to do what it takes to rid Amity of this monster once and for all.

Spielberg’s thriller, Jaws, is the best of its kind, though the story and characters are simple and silly. You could probably expect this 1970’s creation, to be an almost boring and mediocre attempt at capturing some shark attacks, with little possibility of actually portraying a wicked creature wreaking mad havoc on a small beach town. You might expect that he wouldn’t have the equipment or talent even, to turn a simple series of shark attacks into a thrill ride that demands fright.  You have to ask, how is he even successful at implanting fear into the viewers when he can’t even produce a real creature for us to see? Humans fear the unknown and the unknown is both the beauty and downfall of the ocean. So, the fact that his giant mechanical sea beast was a bust, I think actually worked in his favor. It gave him a direct outlet to put his brilliant mind and talents on display to the films viewers. He works with frighteningly accurate camera placement for the perfect shots, spot on editing and an amazingly scary sea beast theme song, by John Williams. He offers up more than a “fair share” of false alarms, which work only to exponentially intensify the fright that occurs when the real shark actually emerges. By the time they find a grossly large shark tooth lodged into the side of a boat, we still haven’t seen the likes of the sea beast, so showing us this tooth, builds a silly amount of suspense. At this point, we don’t know what to expect: Is this thing actually going to be the size of a small Caribbean island?

When taking into consideration that he only had lighting, shadows, editing, props, an incredible score and some special effects to work with, because his mechanical shark was a bust, it makes it extremely difficult to find the words to accurately describe the sheer brilliance of this film. If Spielberg’s intentions were to scare the pants off of beach goers everywhere and make them think twice about mingling with the secrets of the sea, then his job was more than completed.