Delicatessen review

 Number 527 on the top 1000 films of all time is the French, post-apocalyptic, black-comedy Delicatessen.

Delicatessen is set in a ruined apartment building over a butcher shop. A mysterious apocalypse has occurred and food is in short supply. Don't ask what type of meat the butcher/landlord Clapet (Jean-Claude Dreyfuss) is selling. Hopefully, it won't be new tenant and circus clown Laison (Dominique Pinon) or his beau Jane - Clapet's daughter (Marie-Laure Dougnac.)

In the US, this film was released as being presented by Terry Gillam. Although I'm not sure why as I couldn't see any evidence of him having anything to do with the making of this film. Perhaps it was because this film was purely Terry Gillam.

Once being part of the legendary Monty Python comedy troupe, he has gone onto direct the famously surreal and incomprehensible Brazil and Twelve Monkeys. Delicatessen was similarly surreal and incomprehensible. It was all far too weird and zany for me.

Perhaps I'm just not clever enough to truly understand the true genius behind the film, but it seemed weird for the sake of being weird. From the firey colour palate to the strange cast of characters, it was all so strange. I could follow the main story well enough - the clown and his girlfriend are trying not to become dinner. As for everything else? Not a clue.

If you want to say this is a bad review, I wouldn't blame you. But can you critique a film that is so difficult to understand? It was all too weird for me.

Dawn of the Dead review

 Number 402 on the top 1000 films of all time is George A. Romero's 1978 zombie horror 'Dawn of the Dead.'

Peter Washington (Ken Foree) and Roger Demarco (Scott Reiniger) are two police SWAT officers who forsake their posts, after seeing how the true horror of their situation. They join journalists Fran (Gaylen Ross) and Stephen (David Emge) in escaping the carnage. The four soon take shelter in a well-stocked shopping mall, but their problems are far from over.

Dawn of the Dead is generally regarded as a pioneer of the zombie horror genre. It's safe to say that it's had an influence of every single piece of zombie media that's come out in the last forty years. Yes, things have been streamlined and upgraded, but everything leads back to George A. Romero's classic. However, I think I have been spoiled by modern zombie horror. Maybe if I was watching this in 1978, having not seen The Walking Dead or 28 Days Later or Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead, I would have really loved this film. But I didn't enjoy it all that much.

First and foremost, the zombies were so non-threatening. They hobble and limp towards our heroes giving them plenty of time to get away. Even when the characters fall over, drop their weapons or are completely surrounded by the zombies, they still escape unscathed. They never felt like they were in real danger and that really killed any narrative tension. Narrative tension is a point we'll be returning to a while. Anyway, I can totally see why Danny Boyle had his zombies run in 28 Days Later. They were much scarier villains. And yes, I know technically they're not zombies, but you know what I mean. 

And, I know that this is one of the first proper zombie films and the characters don't know all the rules and zombielore, but they were all still so annoying. In a news broadcast, it is specified that you have to destroy the brain to kill the zombie, but the characters waste so many bullets by firing into the zombie's torso. And even when the undead are close enough to nullify a gun, the characters just run instead of pistol-whipping their skulls. Say what you will about the recent narrative direction of the Walking Dead, but the characters there at least know how to kill zombies. 

This is one of those films where a lot of conflict could have been avoided if the characters didn't make such silly decisions. Roger starts to lose his mind and takes unnecessary risks in an operation to barricade the shopping centre from any zombie superhordes. Similarly, Stephen wages a one-man war against the looters who come to ransack the shopping centre where he should have just stayed quiet and let them get on with it. As Peter identifies, the looters don't know they're there and would have easily left them alone. Roger and Stephen's recklessness gets them both killed. I get that being in a zombie apocalypse stops people from acting rationally, but it is a bit annoying when a character's stupidity is what pushes a story forward.

I also did take major issue with the shopping centre being fully stocked. That's completely unbelievable. Just take a look at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. As soon as shit hit the fan, people were emptying supermarkets and fighting over toilet paper. And we're supposed to believe that this shopping centre has just remained untouched? Okay, so the film is supposed to be a comment on the selfish capitalism that is so pervasive of our culture, which only adds credence to the idea that the shopping mall would have been looted in the first instance. It also killed off a lot of dramatic tension. We're not seeing our characters struggling to find water or food as it's all readily available to them.

Speaking of narrative tension, the film suffers badly from sagging-middle syndrome. After the characters have barricaded themselves into the mall and have all the supplies they need, the narrative kind of stagnates. Peter, Stephen and Fran soon go mad out of boredom and realise they have locked themselves in a prison. The boredom was translated through the television screen as I found myself losing interest. It was just lucky there was the gang of marauders to inject a bit of adrenaline into things.

 Although that did lead to one of the most puzzling parts of the film. After the marauders force their way into the mall, leading the way for a super horde of zombies, Fran wants to escape using the helicopter but Peter has lost hope and decides to stay behind. Only he changes his mind at the last minute and joins Fran on the helicopter. This seemed very out of character. He leads the survivors and always keeps them optimistic and on the right path. And yet we're supposed to believe that he just gives up at the end?

And, of course, the special effects weren't brilliant. Dawn of the Dead was made on a tiny budget and it showed. The fake blood looked closer to its constituent ingredients of corn flour and red food colouring than actual blood. It looked fake and tacky. But I guess, this was the 70's. And I have been spoiled by all the fantastic special effects and make-up that went into The Walking Dead  and 28 Days Later.

I do think that at the time this film would have been groundbreaking. But I'm not sure it holds up forty years later. Yes, it created a great precedent, but it's just been bettered and surpassed.

Apocalypse Now Review

SPOILER ALERT

Click here to go to my previous review of the Pianist.

"I love the smell of Napalm in the morning."

Number 49 on the top 1000 films of all time is Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 epic adventure war film Apocalypse Now.

How it all goes down:

Set in the height of the Vietnam War, Martin Sheen plays Captain Benjamin L. Willard who is tasked with assassinating Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who has gone insane and commands his own Montagnard troops in Cambodia.  Accompanying Captain Willard are a Navy Boat Patrol commanded by "Chief" (Albert Hall) and crewed by Lance (Sam Bottoms,) "Chef" (Frederic Forrest) and "Mr Clean" (Laurence Fishburne in his first major film role.)

What worked:

Taking Saving Private Ryan as a prime example, I think that any good war film should do two things.  It should portray an evocative, powerful and gut-wrenching picture of war and it should demonstrate the loyalty and camaraderie that soldiers share with each other.  Apocalypse Now ticks both of these boxes.  As well as this, the location and set pieces are great too.  Filmed in the Philippines, the surrounding landscape and scenery are gorgeous.

The Vietnam War cost the lives of almost 4 million Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, American and many more soldiers and civilians, so there is no doubt that the war was bloody and destructive.  The film is just as horrifying.  Apocalypse Now contains a number of great action sequences that convey the terror the war caused.  The standout example of this is the scene involving Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore who encounters Captain Willard's group and agrees to escort them through the Viet-Cong held coastal mouth of the Nung River.  Even though, Duvall has less than 15 minutes screen-time, his scene is without doubt one of the best in the film.  Duvall's character is tyrannical, insane and terrifying.  Duvall spends much of his time screaming obscenities and he is great with it.  He also gives us some of the film's most quotable lines, such as "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning." This scene also contains one of the film's most notable sequences: a helicopter raid of the local area set to Ride of The Valkyries.  This sequence demonstrates the grotesque grandeur of war and does it well.  For example, when a local Vietnamese girl throws a grenade into the American ground troops, Kilgore responds by having her and the rest of her group shot down from the helicopter.  One can't help but sympathise with the Vietnamese girl who is very much the victim in the situation considering the Americans are the aggressors in her home and country.  Another brutal scene comes when the Willard and his crew inspect a civilian sampan for weapons.  Panicking, Mr Clean shoots all on board.  To prevent any further delay, Willard coldly shoots the last remaining survivor.

As the film progresses, we see Captain Willard and his men grow closer and closer together.  Whilst, Chief constantly comes to blows with Willard, he acts as a father figure for the seventeen year old Mr Clean and is greatly affected by his death.  Captain Willard is initially sworn to secrecy but after after the death of Chief, he comes clean with Lance and Chef.  I really enjoyed watching all of the soldier's interactions with each other.  Seeing how they're affected by each other's pain and suffering was visceral and felt realistic of how real soldiers would react.

What didn't work:

This notwithstanding, the film isn't perfect.  My main issue with it was its length.  At two and a half hours long, it does drag quite a bit and the pacing is uneven.  Whilst Coppola did well in building the suspense in certain scenes, this is completely undone in others.  For example, after Mr Clean's death scene, the survivors find an outpost held by French troops and decide to stop there to catch their breaths.  However, this led to all of the previously built up tension dissipating and turned the film into a bit of a snooze-fest.  I almost fell asleep!

Truth be told, I was also a bit disappointed with Marlon Brando's contribution.  As the only other thing I've seen him in is the Godfather, I was expecting great things from him and these expectations never materialised.  Even though he is the villain in the film, he never has much presence until the very end where when he does actually appear, he is mainly kept in shadow.  Whilst Coppola agreed to have Brando filmed in shadows, due to how he was overweight and drunk for most of the filming, this hurt Colonel Kurtz' characterisation.  Whilst it can be effective to keep some villains hidden in darkness, as it were, I argue that the same does not apply for Colonel Kurtz.

What was ugly:

This is a nitpick which is why I'm saving it for this segment.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who got confused between the three characters whose names all begin with C: Chef, Chief and Mr Clean.  Surely John Milus and Francis Ford Coppola could have been a little more creative.

This film is good.  It's good in its portrayl of war and the horrific violence that encompasses it.  It does well in its characterisation and demonstration of relationships.  It's just a shame that the pacing isn't consistent and the character names are a little confusing.  Anyway, in its portrayl of the death and destruction of the Vietnam War, without doubt, in America's struggle to rid Vietnam of communism, they left miles and miles of broken bodies and burnt crops.  With the death and destruction caused, the Vietnam War is the Godfather of war post WW2.


Click here to go to my previous review of the Godfather Part II