I’ve been meaning to watch I’m Not There since its 2007 release. I finally got around to it. While it’s no longer on the New Release list, I thought it was interesting enough to warrant an examination and a review.
The Accident/Picking a Story
Bob Dylan was white hot and everywhere. Then he had a serious motorcycle accident that broke his neck in several places, cut up his face and forced him into a long period of recovery that slowly gave way to a phase of relative seclusion.
Maybe.
We really don’t know what happened on that Triumph. The big accident story is one version of the truth. Others say that an uncoordinated Dylan barely made it out of his manager’s driveway before accidentally falling off the bike and that he sustained only minor injuries. There’s a version of the story with an oil slick. One claims that a sun-blinded Dylan panicked at high speed.
He wasn’t hurt. He was hurt. He was severely injured. He was on life support. There’s probably some conspiracy nut who thinks the real Bob Dylan died and that a doppelganger replaced him (just like Paul McCartney).
Who knows? It happened or it didn’t. It was minor or nearly fatal. Maybe we should just ask Bob.
Well, people have asked Bob. And he’s given at least three different explanations of the accident himself. When it comes to accuracy in reporting on the events of his life, Bob Dylan isn’t particularly reliable. [Read more…]
Australia: An Interesting Warning with a Side Order of Cole Slaw
I have an incredibly doughy spot for epic movies. Two of my top five all-time favorites are expansive David Lean history pieces (Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago). I’m such a sucker for BIG films that I even liked Legends of the Fall, which by most measures is one of the most horribly overwrought pieces of junk made in the last thirty years.
It was this love of the genre that made a viewing of Australia inevitable. I’m not a Baz Luhrman superfan, Hugh Jackman has never really impressed me and I think Nicole Kidman is the most frustrating actress of her generation. All of my instincts begged me to stay away, but I finally broke down and stuck the 2008 non-blockbuster, Australia, in the DVD player.
Something Interesting
The most interesting part of the entire movie occurs prior to the first credit. Before the first notes of the swollen score, a warning appears on the screen. It states:
Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders should exercise caution when watching this film as it may contain images and voices of deceased persons.
I may have seen other movies that featured this caution, but this is the first time I noticed it. Here’s the scoop:
Apparently, the Aboriginal people of Australia and the indigenous population of the Torres Straits have a series of bereavement and mourning rituals that include certain avoidance practices. When a member of the community passes away, they cease to use the name of the deceased for a prolonged period and avoid or destroy all photographs or recording in which the deceased appears.
It can be quite distressing for these folks to inadvertently encounter an image or recording of the departed during this period of mourning, known as “sorry business.”
Cole Slaw
Unfortunately, that brief warning was more interesting than the rest of the big, bloated flick.
I’ll spare you from a recitation of the plot. Basically, Australia is the story of a little native boy, a fish-out-of-water white woman who shows her toughness in the Outback, and a gruff, grizzled cattle drover set against the backdrop of World War II and the Japanese bombing of Australia.
It features everything you’d expect from a big, romantic epic. Sweeping scenery shots, an over-the-top score, a beautiful woman whose porcelain features belie her steely determination, the rough-and-tumble against-all-odds local love interest, big explosions, big weather and dramatic deaths. It also provides our white protagonists an opportunity to defy convention by landing on the right side of what was a horribly wrong policy regarding the native population during the period.
I can understand those who hate movies made from components like these. I really can. From a more objective perspective, I might even agree with them. However, I really do love this sort of thing. As such, I should adore Australia.
But I don’t.
Australia is cole slaw.
I like cabbage. I like salad dressing. I like little slivers of carrots. I like all of the stuff that goes into cole slaw. It should be my favorite food in the world. Yet, I hate it.
Every year, I try it again. I just can’t believe I don’t like it. It doesn’t make any sense. Every year, I discover that I hate it more than I did the year before.
That’s Australia. I should like it, but I don’t. Not even close.
With Australia, though, I think I know why I’m turned off. When people make cole slaw, they’re making it because they believe it will be a tasty side dish. They’re not making it as part of some culinary homage to the cole slaw of the past. Luhrman’s Australia is an intentionally exaggerated version of old Hollywood epics and its resulting insincerity steals any movie magic it may have otherwise possessed.
Australia is a 20th century Gone with the Wind for the southern hemisphere. It’s also a long reference to another 1939 Hollywood production, The Wizard of Oz. Whether Luhrman is trying to honor those films or to make some other point about their composition is meaningless to me. The movie tries too hard to channel its forefathers and plays like a collection of pieces that aren’t quite properly joined.
Remember, this is coming from a guy who actually enjoyed a movie featuring Anthony Hopkins in a bearskin coat wearing a chalkboard around his neck and slurring profanity. When you lose to Legends of the Fall, you really LOSE.
Actors Who Phone It In
There are some pretty bad actors out there who, lets face it, are only up on the big screen because they’re nice to look at (not that I’m complaining mind you). On a boring Sunday afternoon I’m sure there are plenty of ladies who would gladly give up some brain cells to ogle the likes of Ashton Kutcher , Adrian Grenier , or (dare I say it) Zac Efron – but can these boys act? I’m sure many of you Entourage fans will disagree but when you compare the aforementioned to the likes of Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, and Tom Cruise, there really is no comparison.
It’s forgivable when a bad actor is in a bad movie (i.e., The Guardian with Ashton and another of his ilk, the always wooden Kevin Costner). It’s not forgivable however when a good solid actor with some real chops, phones it in. You know what I’m talking about – the actor who you know only took the job because of the paycheck (or maybe something more sentimental like the movie was filming in Aspen and he wants to be close to his family during their ski vacation). I guess I can sort of understand those reasons but something about a good actor slumming it makes me a little sad. Below is a list of just a few said actors and the movies they would have been better off without. [Read more…]
TV Shows Turn Into Movies – Good Idea or Bad Idea?
Most television shows should never be turned into movies. But because of the almighty greenback, small-screen favorites such as Charlie’s Angels, Starsky and Hutch, and the forthcoming A-Team have been revived into silver screen blockbusters.
Love it or hate it, Hollywood will continue to recycle tried and true content to make a buck rather than go out on a limb. But there are a few wildly popular TV shows from yesteryear that I just can’t see making the jump. [Read more…]
Eastwood to direct Hoover biopic
Clint Eastwood is really getting very, very comfortable on the director’s chair. After a slew of very successful and highly regarded movies, he has set his eyes on directing a biopic on J. Edgar Hoover, the very controversial director of the FBI.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Imagine Entertainment, which is operated by both Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, will be producing the movie.
For those of you who don’t know Hoover, he was the first director of the FBI. He was actually one of the leading lights in the founding of the Agency and he remained its director until his death in 1972. He was credited for many of the advances that made the FBI such a formidable law enforcement agency. But he was also a very controversial figure because he was seen as a man who tried to exceed the reach and jurisdiction of the FBI. He is also reportedly a closet homosexual.
Dustin Lance Black, who wrote Milk, will write the biopic’s script.