The Sting Review

Number 98 on the Top 1000 films of all time is the 1973 Caper film: The Sting.

Set during the height of the Great Depression in 1936, Johnny Hooker, (Robert Redford) Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones) and Joe Erie (Jack Kehoe) con an unassuming victim.  The only problem is that their unassuming victim is revealed to be working for local crime boss Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) who kills Coleman.  In revenge, Hooker teams up with a group of con artists including Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) to take Lonnegan for all that he has.

The Sting is an interesting film due to how it romanticises Hooker and Gondorff who are essentially criminals.  They're supposed to be protagonists when compared against the antagonist Lonnegan who is the true villain.  However, due to Hooker and Gondorff's profession as con artists they are still criminals.  They're thieves if highly glorified thieves. This is why it's so fascinating that they are the heroes of the Sting.  Despite this contrast of roles, the film works.  I think this is down to both Redford's charisma, but also his chemistry with Newman.  Gondorff is supposed to be about twenty years older than Hooker and a definite father-son relationship was present.  Robert Shaw also plays Lonnegan suitably villainously.

Another reason why the Sting succeeds is its technical layout.  The film is played out in separate sections with title cards denoting the start of the next stage of the long con.  This helped to structure the film and to clarify the various sections of a long con, which could be confusing for some.  I also quite liked how the film didn't take itself too seriously.  The Sting makes constant, anachronistic, use of ragtime ditties, which gives it a lighter tone.  The nature of the film could have led it to be very downbeat, but, thankfully, it is kept light-hearted and entertaining.

Finally, it is important to consider the social context of the film when inspecting the characters.  Like I was saying before, it is easy to condemn Gondorff and Hooker as criminals, due to their profession as grifters.  However, the Sting takes place during the Great Depression, a horrific time of poverty that drove men to do whatever they had to survive.  Certainly compared to Lonnegan, Hooker and Gondorff aren't bad men, they just have to do bad things so that they can live their lives.  Do their circumstances justify their actions? Can you ever legitimise stealing regardless of its form? This is another question for another review in another time.

Hunted Episode 6 Review

Over the last 6 weeks, we've come to known 10 fugitives who have made the brave and foolhardy decision to go on the run and evade a group of crack Hunters for 28 days.  If they win, then they get a share of £100,000.

3 days left and we only have 4 fugitives left: let's remind ourselves of how we got this far:

Firstly, we have Yorkshire girls, Anna May and Elizabeth Garnett.  The girls are young and naive, but very spunky and endearing.  They've managed to stay out of the Hunters' clutches by hitch-hiking and being unpredictable.

Secondly, we have Ayo from Hackney, London.  Ayo originally started out as a pair with best friend Madu, but clashing personality differences led to the pair splitting.  The organised, methodical Madu became infuriated with the loose cannon Ayo and left him.  Although it's seemed to work out for the unpredictable Ayo as he's still on the run whereas Madu has been caught.

Lastly, we've come to my favourite fugitive, the family-man Nick Cummings.  Having been a house-husband for 17 years, he went on the run to prove himself and he's managed to evade the Hunters by being constantly underestimated.  However, he's gone from strength to strength and has a great chance of winning.

Let's start with Anna and Elizabeth.  Last episode, the two girls returned to their home county of Yorkshire and it is revealed that they are hiding out with a stranger called Nigel in Wensleydale.  Nigel tips them off about the social media campaign that the Hunters have launched against them and the two girls decide to hike to a service station to hitchhike their way to safety.  To get to the service station, they hike their way through the Yorkshire Dales.  However, the Hunters suspecting that this is the girls' plan, send teams to track them down before they reach the station.  They send up a drone into the sky with thermal imaging technology that quickly spots the girls.  Firstly, this is terrifying.  How the hell do you hide from a piece of technology that can identify you from your body heat? Anna and Elizabeth weren't able to hide from it.  Upon seeing the drone, they panic and run to the closest road where they hitch a lift from pensioner Maureen.  Let's quickly acknowledge how awesome Maureen is.  She unquestioningly helps the girls and even when the Hunters emerge and demand that she stop, she carries on driving.  Again, what did the Hunters expect? They just yelled at this old woman and ripped her car door open.  Of course she's going to drive off.  Alas, this was only a brief respite for the girls.  After Maureen drops the girls off, they are quickly caught by the Hunters when they're unable to find an escape route.  Anna and Elizabeth were on the run for 25 days and although they didn't make it to the end, they should be very proud of themselves.

Onto loose cannon Ayo.  After almost being caught after an ill-thought out plan to return to Hackney, a couple of episodes ago, we see that Ayo is hiding in Daventry with stranger Lisa, her daughter Hayley and boyfriend Kirk.  Ayo is told that his extraction point is under a pier in Kent and he has to reach there by 1PM on the final day.  The Hunters knowing that their time is running out decide to see if they can turn Madu against Ayo.  They offer him a £1000 to betray Ayo, but Madu plays it smartly and asks for £50,000, which is instantly rejected.  I think the Hunters missed out on a trick here.  Maybe Madu could have helped to bring down Ayo.  Back in Daventry, Hayley and Kirk decide to take Ayo part of the way, but then they call up the Hunters preparing to betray Ayo if the price is right.  In the end, they decide against it as the money is too low.  They come clean to Ayo and drop him off in nearby Bicester.  Here Ayo makes contact with one of his friends who drives him to a nearby hotel for Ayo's final night on the run.  I'm glad to see that Ayo has been learning from his mistakes and is refusing to take any more risks.

Lastly, we've come to Nick Cummings who started as completely incompetent, but is now a real front-runner.  I fully acknowledge that I was wrong to undervalue him and I think that the smart money's on him.  Deputy Ben Owen of the Hunters has constantly described him as a "grey man," which is a perfect description and one of the main reasons why I had so sinfully underestimated him. Nick is hiding in Buckinghamshire and is ratted out by a stranger, as well as being caught on CCTV.  The Hunters go in for the kill, but Nick makes it out just in time.  He hitches a lift and is taken in by a stranger called Sarah who tips him off about how the Hunters know what he looks like.  He wisely changes his clothes and is taken to stay with Sarah's friend Barbara for his final night on the run.

Whilst the fugitives have been scrabbling to the finish line, the Hunters have been trying to discover where the extraction point is.  Last year it was in an airfield in Surrey, so initially they consider this option.  But then they start to wonder whether the fugitives could escape by boat.  They notice a boat that is suspiciously hiding around the Isle of Sheppey and determine this is where the fugitives will be taken upon their escape.  This was a bit weird to me.  Why would the boat just be hanging around there? Surely that would be suspicious? Anyway, the Hunters then try their best to determine where the boat would pick up Nick and Ayo.  Having determined this, they send all of their ground teams to lie in wait.  This is when they realise that they are on the wrong side of the bay and scrabble to reach the other side, but their incompetency costs them dearly, as both Ayo and Nick have escaped to safety.

Words cannot express how happy I am that Nick managed to escape.  He has been the heart and soul of the series and the dedication that he has shown to his family is just adorable.  Nick, you have definitely proven your self-worth and you are so much more than just a house-husband.  Don't forget that.  You have made everybody proud.

And of course, congratulations goes out to Ayo.  He has had a rocky journey due to his recklessness, but his sheer audacity has made him great entertainment.  Just like Nick, he is a family man and now he has £50,000 to take home to his family.  Although if the Hunters hadn't been so stubborn in refusing Madu's request, maybe Ayo wouldn't have made it to the end.  Furthermore, the Hunters have all been a bit incompetent in this series.  There were plenty of opportunities where they could have caught the fugitives, but they didn't.

That's it for one year, I hope you enjoyed it.  And as always, never tell me your plans for going on the run in the comments below, who knows who's reading?

Top tips for going on the run:

1. As always don't trust anyone.  This was the downfall of Anna and Elizabeth (worthy runners up) and could have been the downfall of Ayo.

2. Change your appearance like Nick.  This keeps you unpredictable.

3. If the Hunters offer you money to betray someone then always ask for more.  What do you have to lose?

Rashomon Review

Number 97 on the top 1000 greatest films of all time is another Japanese jidaigeki film from the 50's: Rashomon.

Rashomon's narrative is simple.  A samurai and his wife are walking in the woods; a bandit then appears, ties up the samurai, rapes his wife and then kills the samurai.  Things become more complicated when the bandit, the wife, the samurai (through a medium) and the woodcutter who reports the crime, give conflicting testimonies in court.

Rashomon became well-known for pioneering the plot device of having different characters providing alternative and contradictory versions of truth.  This is what makes it such an interesting morality tale about how various people can manipulate the truth to suit their own purposes.  For example, the bandit wishing to portray both him and the samurai honorably claims that they duelled valiantly with the bandit being the victor.  However, when the wife gives her story, she argues that the bandit left after raping her, which is when she frees her husband and begs him to kill her so that she does not live with her shame.  Upon seeing his look of contempt, she faints and wakes up to find that he is dead.

Things become more complicated when the samurai himself, through a medium, reports his version of events.  After the bandit has raped his wife, she promises to leave with him, after she has killed her husband, so that two men do not know her dishonour.  The bandit, shocked by her request, instead frees the samurai who then kills himself.  Finally, the woodcutter throws a spanner in the works by recounting his story.  He says that the witnessed the rape and the murder, but didn't want to become involved in the trial.  The woodcutter claims that the bandit begs the woman to marry him, but instead she frees her husband and commands him to fight for her honour.  The samurai refuses saying that he will not fight for a spoiled woman, to which the wife emasculates both the samurai and bandit, and goads them into duelling each other.  After a cowardly, pitiful fight, the bandit kills the samurai, and the wife flees.  However, then the woodcutter's story is drawn into question, when it is revealed that he stole the samurai's dagger.

These four conflicting stories explore how malleable the truth can be and by the film's conclusion, it is not revealed what has actually occurred.  Rather it is left down to the viewer to draw their own conclusions.  And in situations like this, I always think this is the best thing to do.  Take elements from all available resources and draw your own basis.

Although, Rashomon was an interesting tale about human morality, it wasn't perfect.  It wasn't engaging throughout and there were many occasions where I did become bored.  Intercut with the courtroom scenes were flashbacks to the actual crime, however, these weren't as enthralling as they could have been.  Some of the crime scenes were shot without music and as such the dramatic tension just dissipated.  It wasn't that Rashomon was difficult to follow, it just wasn't nearly as interesting or as engaging as it could have been.

Whose story do you think is the truthful one? I'm inclined to believe the woodcutter, as he is theoretically the only neutral party.  The wife's story is too vague, the bandit's too romanticised and the samurai's too dubious, as it was told through a medium.  However, as already discussed, the woodcutter stole the samurai's dagger proving that everyone is selfish, dishonest and motivated by self-interest.

Hunted Episode 5 Review

Still on the run after 21 days, are family man Nick Cummings, best friends Anna and Elizabeth and dubious friends Ayo and Madu who have since gone their separate ways.

After taking a backseat in the last couple of episodes, Anna and Elizabeth feature a bit more heavily here.  I like the two girls.  They're young, perhaps a little naive, but spunky and determined.  Their relationship strongly reminds me of last year's winners, Ian and Stephen, who were good entertainment.

When we catch up with the girls, we find out that they are hiding in Warwickshire.  Deputy Ben Owen of the Hunters, formally in military intelligence, predicts that now the fugitives are so close to the finish line, they'll return home to group for that one final push.  So the Hunters unleash another social media campaign.  Meanwhile, the girls fall into the Hunters' trap.  They return to their home country of Yorkshire and after hiking through the Yorkshire Dales for two days, they make contact with a Steve Barnett who shelters them.  However, the Hunters have Barnett on their radar and move to intercept him.  The girls make it away in time.

After Nick Cummings spectacularly tricking the Hunters last episode, he is in more of the background here.  From Tring, Hertfordshire, he's moved south to Buckinghamshire, where he is visiting some childhood haunts.  He then makes the wise decision of changing his clothes and that's all we se see of him for this episode.  Great, as that means he'll be in next week's finale.  Although anyone else find it strange that the Hunters didn't question Richard after catching him last week?

Time to move to Ayo who I was sure would be caught last episode.  He makes the foolhardy decision of returning to his home turf of Hackney with the Hunters in hot pursuit.  With ground teams, drone and dogs, I thought that Ayo would be dead meat, but no, one of his friends successfully drove him to safety.  This was where I was glad to see Ayo finally showing some common sense.  When his friend suggests to take Ayo to his mother's house, Ayo straight-out refuses knowing that it is not safe.  Smart decision, as the Hunters have target Ayo's mother, but he continues to evade them.

Finally, we have come to Madu.  We've not seen much of him, as he's been overshadowed by the louder, more extroverted Ayo.  But now the two have split up, Madu finally got his moment to shine.  Originally hiding with a stranger in Lancashire, Madu decides to go to Swansea to get into contact with some of his ex-university friends, falling into the Hunters' trap.  The Hunters predict he would return to Swansea and pay a visit to his main contact.  They take the electronics and leave.  When Madu arrives, he is warned off and stays in a derelict beach house, where we see him start to break.  Just like last year's formidable Ricky Allen, we see Madu beginning to give up.  This is where he realises that he's pushed his luck and decides to leave Wales, committing two rookies errors in the process.  Firstly, he uses a stranger's phone to call a contact, whom the Hunters are monitoring, to ask for more money.  Secondly, he decides to get on a train to Reading.  As the station is crawling with CCTV, the Hunters quickly spot Madu and identify where he is likely to be heading.  Unable to stop him from getting on the train, they dispatch a team to Reading, but Madu gets there first.  He wanders through the town centre telling everyone about his plans and asking where he can go to me meet his contact.  With the Hunters right on his tail, Madu's paranoia grows and he heads out of the city onto the canal.  Here he tells eve more people about his plans before he is directed to meet his contact at the Cunning Man pub.  Madu goes to the pub, but he realises his foolhardiness when he notices how many security cameras there are.  Oh and that the Hunters are lying in wait too.  After a brief chase, Madu is caught.

It is very interesting to see the role reversal of Madu and Ayo.  Wherea before, Ayo was the more reckless one, in this episode it is Madu whose overconfidence and carelessness that gets him caught.  This was a surprise, as I thought he had a good chance, now that he had separated from Ayo.  Although there is something quite telling in how the loose cannon Ayo is still at large, but it was the methodical, organised Madu who got caught.  Perhaps Ayo's more unpredictable, foolhardy approach like Ayo.

So next week is the season finale with Ayo, Anna and Elizabeth and Nick Cummings still on the run.  Will any of them make it for the full 28 days? I sure hope so.  GO NICK!

Top tips for going on the run:

1. Don't call or visit home.  This is the first place Hunters will look.  It's what almost caught out Anna and Elizabeth.

2.  Don't use the trains.  Not only are they crawling with CCTV, but the Hunters can easily predict your next move.  This is what caught out Madu.

3. Don't become overconfident.  You're never safe, only safer.  Madu's overconfidence is just another reason he got caught this week.

Yojimbo Review

Number 96 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1961 jidaigeki film Yojimbo.

The first Japanese film I've reviewed since The Seven Samurai and also the film that inspired Sergio Leone's Dollars' Trilogy including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Yojimbo focuses on Sanjuro Kuwabatake, a ronin.  When Sanjuro wanders into an impoverished country town, he finds himself caught up in a war between two different clans of bandits.  As much as he tries to stay neutral, he finds himself drawn into the conflict as both sides want him to act as their bodyguard or Yojimbo.

From an outsider's perspective, this was an interesting film to watch.  I don't know much about Japanese history, so it was definitely interesting learning about Japan's Edo period.  I especially liked watching how Yojimbo focused on the family.  The two warring factions are led by Ushitora and Sebei.  At one point friends, Ushitora rebels against Sebei when the latter hands over the reigns of the gang to his son, Yoichiro, who is not up to the task.  A second example of family comes right at the beginning of the film where Sanjuro witnesses a son arguing to his elderly parents that he wants to make something of his life by joining the bandits, rather than live the rest of his life as a boring, dull farmer.  At the end of the film, in the final confrontation, when Sanjuro is killing all of the bandits, he spares the son telling him to go home and enjoy a quiet life.  This was a nice touch and a good way to bring the film full circle.  Sometimes it is better to fade away eating gruel rather than dying young in a blaze of glory.

All of this notwithstanding, I can't say that I particularly enjoyed this film.  I found it tedious and difficult to follow at times.  I did get confused between the large cast of characters and especially about who was on whose side.  Every so often I had to pause the film and read the IMDB summary to catch up on everything that was happening. Plus the special effects and fight scenes were pretty poor as well.  I know that this was a black and white film in the 60's, but they were so obviously fake.

All in all this was a film that made very little impression on me.  I can't remember much of what I watched, but it'll be interesting to come back to this film, after I have watched the Spaghetti Western classic it inspired: A Fistful of Dollars.

Hunted Episode 4 Review

So we're now 18 days into Hunted and with Lolly being caught last week, we have three groups of fugitives on the run: solo fugitive Nick and the two pairs Ayo and Madu and Anna and Elizabeth.

Just like last week, Anna and Elizabeth take a back seat in this episode.  After hitchhiking over 2000 miles, they decide to stop in Windsor for the Queen's 90th birthday celebrations and that's all we know for this episode.

When first introduced to Nick Cummins, I had described him as bumbling Englishman, sweet and likeable, but utterly incompetent.  However, he has continously left me eating my words, as he's managed to evade the Hunters for close to three weeks now.

The Hunters struggling to pin anything on him, having identified that he is a family man, suspect that that he is staying close to home.  Afterwards they interview his wife and bug his home.  Their suspicions are proved correct, when it is revealed that Nick is only 30 miles from his home.  Camping in public camping grounds, before being taken in by stranger Richard and his family, Nick decides to return home to get money from his wife, Joanne.  Nick plays it safe by staying in the garden and having his son go fetch her.  This is where Joanne shows her loyalty and intelligence.  She warns Nick about how the Hunters know about his workman costume and have probably bugged her phone.  That's it.  No prolonged goodbyes, just a quick exchange of information and a fierce display of loyalty from Joanne.

However, this is when Nick makes a mistake.  After he has Richard drive him to a camping site, he uses Richard's phone to call a neighbour to call a friend to tell Joanne that he's lost his camping equipment and money and he wants to meet her his gym, so that she can help him.  The Hunters latch onto this and immediately send a team to intercept NIck at the gym.  The Hunters see a man of Nick's description complete with wig and blue boiler and suit and catch him.  Can it be? Was I right all along? Did Nick break every every rule about being on the run? No, of course not.  Once again Nick proves why he should not be underestimated, especially by the Hunters.  The man whom the Hunters caught was actually Richard.  Nick having been tipped off by his wonderful wife, Joanne, knows that to escape, he needed to create a diversion.  Quite rightly he suspects that the Hunters are monitoring Joanne's phone and so calls her up to lay a little trap, whilst he is escaping 250 miles away to Tring, Hertfordshire.

For me, Nick has proven his worth.  Seeing the Hunters being so completely outsmarted was brilliant to watch and has exposed their own ineptness.  Oh how the tables have turned.  Last year, Ricky Allen lasted three weeks before being caught and Nick is proving himself to be as every bit as cunning and devious.

Whilst Nick now stands a chance of winning, I'm not too sure about Ayo and Madu, or at least Ayo.  I predicted last week that like last year's eventual winners Emily and Lauren, that Ayo and Madu's personality clashes would cause them to split up.  And I was right.  The organised, methodical Madu has had enough of the loose cannon Ayo and walks off, with Ayo doing little to stop him.  The rest of the episode focussed on Ayo with Madu being the centre focus of next week.

We've already seen Ayo's cockiness and his desire to the centre of attention. The Hunters aim to exploit this by provoking Ayo into making a mistake.  They do this by buying his baby daughter a toy car and then tweeting about it.  Meanwhile, Ayo has charmed his way into staying with the family of a Subway employee in Shropshire. And when he sees what the Hunters have done, he completely rises to their bait.  Angry at how they've used his family. Ayo decides to take revenge by going into London and seeing daughter all without getting caught.

But firstly he lays a trap for them.  He has photos of him and the his hosts posted on social media and in an outrageous display, creates wanted posters of the Hunters.  Finally he tauntingly calls Chief Inspector Peter Becksley.  All of this is to trick the Hunters into thinking that he is still in Shropshire when he is actually travelling to London.  However, unlike, Nick's plan, Ayo's doesn't work.  The Hunters suspect that it's a trap and think that he will return to London.

This is exactly what happens.  Ayo hitches a lift into London with the Hunters right on his tail.  Succumbing to paranoia and realising the recklessness of his plan, Ayo ditches the car and decides instead to see his brother for help.  Instead he runs into one of his friends who holes him up in his flat.  However, the Hunters are one step ahead.  They have pinpointed his location, and whilst not knowing exactly where hs is, they decide to smoke him out through helicopters, ground teams, dogs and drones.  Will Ayo get out? Honestly, I'm not too sure.  His cockiness has always been his downfall and the fact that there are two episodes left, means that I think that somebody will be caught next week.  If not, I will be having serious doubts about the people who are supposedly safeguarding our nation.

Top tips for going on the run

Whilst no glaring errors were made in this episode, here are some small things to aid in your success.

1. Be careful in trying to outwit the Hunters.  It worked for Nick, because the Hunters underestimated him.  But they were suspecting Ayo to try something like this.

2.  Stay away from crowded areas.  Anna and Elizabeth may regret going to the Queen's birthday celebrations in Windsor.

3.  Find the Richard who helped out Nick.  This man is a legend.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre Review

Continuing my stay in the era of Classic Hollywood, we have number 94 on the top 1000 films of all time: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) and Curtin (Tim Holt) are two Americans in Mexico, down on their luck.  They encounter Howard (Walter Huston) a veteran, ageing gold-miner.  Having little other option they decide to try their luck prospecting gold in the remote Sierra Madre mountains- a dangerous area crawling with bandits and federales.  Yet the biggest danger proves to be themselves.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is the ultimate tale of the corrupting influence of greed.  Dobb's story-arc is fascinating to watch, as he transforms from a pitiful, yet sympathetic protagonist to a selfish, paranoid antagonist.  In the beginning it is possible to feel sorry for him, as he has to ask strangers to treat a "fellow American to a meal." But as the film progresses and the promise of a big payout increase, Dobbs becomes ruthless and agitated, ready to kill anyone in his way.  Al credit goes to Humphrey Bogart for this great performance; Dobbs' transformation is entirely believable and quite true to life, I think,

Dobb's antagonist climaxes in his attempted murder of Curtin.  Curtin is a great character and Holt and Bogart play well off each other.  What makes their relationship so good is how in some ways, they are reflections of each other.  Both of them start off in the same pitiful position, but Curtin keeps a grip on his humanity, whilst Dobbs slowly devolves.  Dobbs symbolises the greed and selfishness of the gold rush era and Curtin is more indicative of the opportunity and wanderlust that it cold bring.

Rounding off our trio we have Howard, the ageing, world-weary gold prospector who joins Dobbs and Curtin for one last adventure.  To some extent, Howard is light relief, but he's also the neutral party.  Dobbs and Curtin are motivated by money, but for Howard, it's his love of prospecting and the Mexican landscape.  He proves an invaluable resource when it comes to identifying the best areas for prospecting and for defending the camp against Mexican bandits and federales.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is set in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution, which made an interesting backdrop.  It isn't an area of history that I know a lot about, so it was interesting seeing it through the eyes of our heroes.  Although, for the most part, the bandits are a background threat, their presence is felt throughout the film.

Although by today's standards, the Treasure of the Sierra Madre is nothing new, it was still done well.  Even in monochrome, the visuals are strong, the context interesting and Bogart gives one of his best performances.  Having said that, the only other thing I've seen him in is Casablanca.