I don't have a lot to say about this one. It's slow, it's dull, it's very much a product of its time,
and it's made by a man who later went on to rape a 13-year-old. Rosemary has the intelligence and maturity of a typical 6 year old. The movie also nicely demonstrates the importance of both no-fault divorces and HIPAA.
However, I will give it one cookie. Spousal rape is the tool of Teh Evilz. The movie was made 8 years before the first state repealed the spousal exemptions from rape laws, so in this regard, it was ahead of its time. I am reaching a bit to hand over this cookie, but that's worth it.
It's still a slow dull idiot movie that's painfully 1968, though. Snigger with me as Guy tells his pregnant wife that she shouldn't be on her feet while simultaneously plying her with booze.
Now, for a nice non sequitor: As I'm usually quite bad with faces, it's always a little odd for me when I can pick out actors I've seen before, especially minor ones. This time the mental commentary was kind of funny. "Hmm, the hangdog looking building manager looks awfully familiar. Who is... Oh, it's the boozey leprachaun head they throw at us in House on Haunted Hill."
If you've seen the version with Mike Nelson commentary (Legend Films), you know what I'm talking about. If not, you probably think I'm insane. Suffice to say, Elisha Cook Jr = hangdog building manager in Rosemary's Baby = boozey "why the hell did you come into this house again" guy from the original 1959 House on Haunted Hill.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Movie: Jacob's Ladder (with brutal spoilers)
Back when I watched Taxi Driver, I remarked that the problem with movies done from a mentally ill POV is that mental illness is actually quite boring most of the time.
Same problem here.
Actually, there are a lot of problems here. That's just one. Another is that the movie can't decide what it wants to be. War flick with vast government conspiracy chaser? Demonic supernatural horror? Psychological 'descent into madness' thriller? Oh, they all look so good, let's just moosh 'em together and see what comes out.
Then there's the anachronisms. Made in 1990, set in the 1970s. Maybe. Except parts of it are really blatantly 1990. Only it can't possibly be set 20 years after the Vietnam War segments and it has to be the 70s or early 80s. Except for half the women's clothes and the kids' slang, which are really blatantly 1990. And that's before we get to the ending, which makes all anachronisms completely unforgivable.
That brings us to another problem: the ending. I have seen some stupid endings in my day, and let me tell you, this is a contender. I mean, you know it's going to be lame when the dead kid shows up and leads Daddy up the Stairway to Heaven, but no, it has to get even stupider. Hasn't Hollywood outgrown the "entire movie was a dream sequence" conceit? I know it was popular in the 1930s and 40s (Wizard of Oz, Cabin in the Sky), it just doesn't work anymore.
I don't know, maybe WoO and Cabin worked as well as they did (and you can take that as you will) because the moviemakers basically gave you two choices for why this story is happening: weird ass shit is really happening, or it's a dream. Jacob's Ladder hands you excuse after excuse after excuse. Maybe it's the experimental army drugs. Maybe it's brain damage from the 106 fever. Maybe it's a supernatural entity coming back to collect Jake because it missed the first time. Oh, how about "it's all a dream". How about that excuse?
Or maybe the "all a dream" trope only works when there's a tornado involved. In any event, in Jacob's Ladder, it was as though they didn't think I was groaning "Oh my God, you aren't going to go with this stupid ending, are you?" loud enough, so they decided to make it worse.
Fans of the movie are doubtless going to say I don't understand. They may be right; I wouldn't know if they were. But I really don't think they are. It's the jumbled thought processes of a man coming to terms with his life as he lays dying on a battlefield operating table. I get that. I just think it's a really bad rendition of the idea.
Personally, I think the real point of the movie was to tape a lot of bloody body parts and people shaking their heads around real fast. :P
Same problem here.
Actually, there are a lot of problems here. That's just one. Another is that the movie can't decide what it wants to be. War flick with vast government conspiracy chaser? Demonic supernatural horror? Psychological 'descent into madness' thriller? Oh, they all look so good, let's just moosh 'em together and see what comes out.
Then there's the anachronisms. Made in 1990, set in the 1970s. Maybe. Except parts of it are really blatantly 1990. Only it can't possibly be set 20 years after the Vietnam War segments and it has to be the 70s or early 80s. Except for half the women's clothes and the kids' slang, which are really blatantly 1990. And that's before we get to the ending, which makes all anachronisms completely unforgivable.
That brings us to another problem: the ending. I have seen some stupid endings in my day, and let me tell you, this is a contender. I mean, you know it's going to be lame when the dead kid shows up and leads Daddy up the Stairway to Heaven, but no, it has to get even stupider. Hasn't Hollywood outgrown the "entire movie was a dream sequence" conceit? I know it was popular in the 1930s and 40s (Wizard of Oz, Cabin in the Sky), it just doesn't work anymore.
I don't know, maybe WoO and Cabin worked as well as they did (and you can take that as you will) because the moviemakers basically gave you two choices for why this story is happening: weird ass shit is really happening, or it's a dream. Jacob's Ladder hands you excuse after excuse after excuse. Maybe it's the experimental army drugs. Maybe it's brain damage from the 106 fever. Maybe it's a supernatural entity coming back to collect Jake because it missed the first time. Oh, how about "it's all a dream". How about that excuse?
Or maybe the "all a dream" trope only works when there's a tornado involved. In any event, in Jacob's Ladder, it was as though they didn't think I was groaning "Oh my God, you aren't going to go with this stupid ending, are you?" loud enough, so they decided to make it worse.
Fans of the movie are doubtless going to say I don't understand. They may be right; I wouldn't know if they were. But I really don't think they are. It's the jumbled thought processes of a man coming to terms with his life as he lays dying on a battlefield operating table. I get that. I just think it's a really bad rendition of the idea.
Personally, I think the real point of the movie was to tape a lot of bloody body parts and people shaking their heads around real fast. :P
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