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Syriana

”Corruption is why we win.”

Stephan Gaghan scripted 2000’s Traffic and rightly won an Oscar. He followed that up with the intriguing but ultimately crappy Abandon which like Syriana, he also directed. In Syriana, Gaghan has penned an excellent script that is reminiscent of Traffic in style of storytelling. There are several story lines running and the connections between them are even less conspicuous than those of Traffic. This is the real scheme of foreign policy and business connections. It’s not ten white guys plotting deviously in the back of their secret clubhouse. That’s called “Poker Night away from Wifey”. Both less accessible and more realistic are multiple parties operating in mutually convenient directions without much, if any, coordination of efforts. Were it not a compelling group of narratives, Syriana would still be somewhat impressive for cohesively laying out a plausible schematic of oil geopolitics.

Because moving through the various plot lines would take quite a bit of time and space, it’s perhaps better to write a consciously inadequate review for the sake of saving a bit of both of them. So much more briefly the film involves impoverished South Asian migrant workers to the Persian Gulf. And oil lawyers. And oil industry executives. And a CIA field operative. And Hezbollah. And CIA higher ups. And Senate hearings on corruption. And Iranian intelligence officers. And an energy analyst. And the line of succession to Emir of an unnamed Persian Gulf nation. And a progressive Arab politician. And a coup. And an assassination. And a countercoup. And two terrorist attacks. And drilling rights. And a business merger. And political lobbying in the US. And increasing Chinese influence in the oil industry. And more. Some of the “more” are unnecessary. Damon’s marital strife adds marginally, at best, to the story and Wright’s alcoholic farmer doesn’t add anything at all though the performances are solid enough in both cases.

The storytelling style is not the only thing borrowed from Traffic. Gaghan makes extensive use of the handheld camera to help give a sense of urgency and participation. That style is part of what made Traffic so good. Another shared trait is the dearth of heroes in Syriana. The characters who seem to have their heads and hearts pointed in the right direction (left!) appear to do so only out of opportunism. This is an uncomfortable, though believable, basis for their morality. Taken as a whole this paints a stark and credible picture. Likely it’s so convincing because so much of it is based, somewhat loosely, on real events. Gaghan adapted the screenplay from Robert Baer’s See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism. Baer was a 21 year case officer for the CIA and that type of insight into policy is what makes Syriana not only satisfactory, but also relevant.

King Kong

Gorilla in the midst

Merian C. Cooper’s 1933 monster movie King Kong was a pioneering film in many ways. As such, it’s rightly remembered as a classic. Being a ‘classic’ though certainly does not mean it’s one of the best films ever made. The original King Kong has some terrible dialogue, much of which is screamed, and fairly stiff acting. It is also a terribly racist film with a portrayal of the fictional Skull Island’s indigenous population, decidedly nonwhite folks, as a group of savage beasts that use coconuts for bras and such. The strength of the film was not the fairly simple story of a huge-ass misunderstood ape. The strength was the use of the most advanced special effects of the day to create terrifying images and impossible characters on screen, giving life to said ape. While lighting had long been an art form of its own in cinema, advanced special effects were a new phenomenon. After Kong finally made his appearance the film was more or less a nonstop exhibition of state of the art techniques in live action animation. This included one of the most innovative uses of condoms to date, certainly far more creative than what this reviewer tends to use them for. The effect was to make the ape an actual character instead of a prop. There was no actor but Kong was the star. Mixing awe and appreciation for Cooper’s film with full cognizance of its flaws comes Peter Jackson’s wonderful King Kong. Leaving Middle Earth for Manhattan, Jackson helms one of the year’s best pictures.

Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) is a struggling but optimistic vaudeville performer trying to eke out a living in a Depression era New York City. Carl Denham (Jack Black) is a shady filmmaker about to get his in-production feature pulled. Denham has to get out of town with all his equipment before he actually gets word that his reels are to be dumped for stock footage. He rescues Ann from a first brush with poverty crime and ropes her into heading to Singapore where he insists his new jungle feature is to be filmed. Much to the chagrin of the sailors the true destination is really an uncharted South Pacific island. Also on the boat after being more or less kidnapped is playwright Jack Driscoll (Adrian Brody). Ann’s star struck in his presence but that longing turns into a mutual appreciation that begins to blossom en route to Skull Island.

Arriving at the island the group finds itself besieged by the indigenous populace. Instead of judging them as villains of some sort Jackson instead shows how they are misjudged by Denham. That a lot of thought was put into these scenes is evident and one can check the film’s official website for the rather elaborate back story of the islanders. Ann is offered to Kong as a sacrifice to help the islanders survive on an island where they are very, very low on the food chain. The Skull Islanders are not the only marginal characters to be given a remarkable level of development. A large portion of boat’s crew are fully drawn characters and Jackson’s allows for seemingly throwaway characters like a porter to be turned into a key part of one of the more touching scenes in the film.

After Kong gets his girl for the first time, some seventy minutes into the picture, the film really picks up speed and also heart. In the original, Kong is misunderstood by everyone. In 2005 though, Ann gets to know her captor/savior which allows for a deeper and more moving relationship between girl & gorilla. Kong is not anthropomorphized at all. He is simply a lonely ape looking for a nice blonde girl to terrify and protect. The simplicity of their relationship makes it no less profound and the struggle of each to protect the other is deeply moving. Scenes of the two on a ledge watching a sunset are a treat. The big ape of course does not easily keep Ann safe in so treacherous a place as Skull Island. He might have to do battle with the occasional Tyrannosaurus or giant bat to keep his home, and battle he certainly does. As anyone who’s ever fought three tyrannosaurs simultaneously could probably tell you, it’s a substantial undertaking. Modern special effects carry the day though allowing for a battle every bit as cool as it sounds. Perhaps even more impressive is a scene where Denham, Driscoll and others are running from a pack of spooked brontosaurs. While the integration of the running humans with the creatures isn’t always perfect the climax of the scene more than makes up for it. One can imagine the filmmakers watching an action film with a twenty-car pileup and shaking their heads. “That shouldn’t be automobiles,” one would say with a look of deranged brilliance spreading across the face. “That should be fucking brontosaurs colliding and flipping all over the screen.” It’s an exceptional scene in a film full of them.

This all leads back to the inevitable and beautifully tragic confrontation atop a certain skyscraper in a certain city. The ending is well known but it’s no less breathless for the knowledge. The film is the very essence of the tragedy of misunderstanding, a theme trotted out a few different times. The lack of understanding for all inhabitants of Skull Island ends well for no one. The film is Jackson’s finest to date and surpasses the original in most ways. Certainly the excellent performances by Brody, Watts and Black help carry the film a great deal but just as it was Willis O’Brien’s creation that starred in the original, it’s a different primate that wins the day here. The film’s famous closing line has a very different effect in this new version. When it’s read this time it makes the tragedy even more great for the knowledge that even those who knew Kong still don’t recognize what they did wrong, even in hindsight. A problem shared by our president one might jab unnecessarily.

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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

“Logically it would be impossible.”

Many people hoped that the preachy Christian allegory of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia might be mellowed a bit by Hollywood. The first thing these people should now is that the movie is a joint production between Disney and Walden Media. Walden is owned by Philip Anschutz who has helped fund Colorado for Family Values, an extremist antigay group, and Morality in Media, a group that’s as anti-fun as it sounds. The problem of course is not that Lewis was devoutly Christian. The problem is that his story painted conflict in the broadest of strokes with light vs. dark removing from the real world any depth or message the books might have had. That the simplistic and morally bizarre stories remain compelling narratives is a compliment to Lewis’ abilities as a storyteller. So what happens when one keeps Lewis’ sermonizing but takes away the storytelling skill? Walden Media most definitely has the answer to that question. It’s Andrew Adamson’s didactic and boring new film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Sticking for the most part to the major plot points of the book, the film opens with London being bombed by German planes. The Evacuation sends the children Pevensie to a rural home occupied by Prof. Kirke (Jim Broadbent). They bicker their way into a game of hide & seek. As Lucy (Georgie Henley) rushes about to hide she stumbles into a large wardrobe that acts as a gateway to Narnia. After meeting a local she heads back through the wardrobe to tell her siblings about her amazing discovery. Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Peter (William Moseley) and Susan (Anna Popplewell) treat her claims with a healthy dose of skepticism. At least that what it seems like their doing. It’s hard to tell actually because the four are all terrible actors. None of them seem to have any ability to perform anything beyond “cute” and all too often, “brat”. That Tilda Swinton is a talented performer is a fact made clear many times over. Here though, she seems so incredibly superior by comparison that it’s reasonable to assume that; if she is acting, the kids must be doing something else entirely.

After all four end up in Narnia they begin a to fulfill a prophecy that assures they will help free Narnia from the rule of the White Witch (Swinton). They fight on the side of Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson), a lion opposed to the witch’s rule. Aslan remains one of the few depictions of Christ that have him eating the face of his enemy. This is part of the just plain weird moral universe of C.S. Lewis’ tales. Just how magical and awesome are child soldiers? Apparently Lewis & Adamson saw something more charming and delightful than what Amnesty International sees. It’s certainly more common to have children dream of becoming royalty of some sort but certainly no less grotesque. Monarchs historically are not a good bunch. Everyone likes a good public beheading and such from to time but the excesses of most monarchies are not something to be embraced. Yet it is to be nothing better than an unqualified autocrat that these children aspire.

Moving on, the CGI face of Aslan is infinitely more expressive than the mugs of those awful, awful child actors. The special effects are unquestionably the highlight of the film. It’s one of the first times that a talking CGI animal comes across as a character instead of creepy. The landscapes are brilliant and the White Witch lives in an ice castle every bit as sinister as she is. There are a couple of goofs though in the effects as well. At least two times any sober or mildly inebriated viewer will spot some kids walking in front of a green screen. There are other times when the CGI doesn’t quite gel but for the most part it’s a swell effects party.

The solid effects are not enough to redeem the insipid dialogue and leaden performances. This film is being marketed as a “family friendly” tale. It’s a puzzling decision though for what family wants crap as their friend? Walden Media is continuing to bring their bizarro Thoreau world to theaters. They are currently producing another film to be titled Amazing Grace. It’s being labeled as a biopic of William Wilberforce, and early nineteenth century British fundamentalist and sort of an antislavery campaigner. “Sort of” because though he was strongly against the slave trade, he also believed that, “It would be wrong to emancipate them. To grant freedom to them immediately, would be to insure not only their masters' ruin, but their own.” Walden Media? It’s Jesus of Nazareth tearing apart enemies with his claws. It’s slaves that need some practice before they can be free. Yeah, it’s kind of like that.

A couple of famous entertainers have died in the past few weeks that are notable for progressive achievements and both will be missed.

Noriyuki "Pat" Morita

1932-2005

Though probably best known as Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid, he had a long career as a comedian and actor including a prominent stint on Happy Days. Lesser know is his role as a victim of the concentration camps set up by the US durign World War II. He campaigned for years for reparations to victims of the policy even including it in The Karate Kid.

Richard Pryor

1940-2005

In addition to turning comedy on its head, Pryor used comedy to confront racism. He not only ridiculed the old, more overt, racism but he also pushed the boundaries for white audiences who might have thought themselves without prejudice. Additionally, he was a campaigner for many progressive causes, most notably, animal rights.