The Dailies 5/5/10: Moons Over London (And Washington, Sicily and the Confederate South)

Moon (2009)
Director: Duncan Jones
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey

In the last Dailies column, I expressed my fondness for Westerns, explaining that I’m a sucker for the genre as a whole and hence my opinions on Western films might want to be taken with a grain of salt. Another genre of films that I’m particularly taken with is well-thought out futuristic science-fiction in the vein of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Moon, the debut feature film of Duncan Jones (alternately known as Zowie Bowie, son of rock star David Bowie), is a spiritual sister to 2001 and a terrific film whether you’re a fan of science-fiction or not.

It’s the future, and man has progressed to the point of conducting mining operations on the moon. Sam Rockwell (Matchstick Men, Frost/Nixon) is a lone human living on the moon, making sure that the mining is carried out successfully. Small changes begin affecting him as they had not before; he sees visions and starts becoming easily distracted. Eventually, these visions manifest themselves into something much larger; a full-blown conspiracy featuring clones, false memories, and even a creepy semi-sentient robot. It’s hard to describe too much of Moon without giving things away, though the film eventually does relay what’s happening long before its conclusion.

This may sound fantastical and ridiculous, but Moon is not “science-fiction” in the way that Avatar or even Star Wars fits that description. Moon is sparse, thoughtful, and deals with fundamental truths in a unique setting and way. It nails the loneliness and isolation, the grayness and bleakness of the moon and space, so much so that they embed themselves into Rockwell’s character and we cannot view him without thinking of his surroundings. It’s a taut, psychological thriller with a heart, all while set on the moon, which strikes me as a tremendous achievement. A-.

Eastern Promises (2007)
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel
Academy Awards: Nominated (Actor – Mortensen)

David Cronenberg is a very talented director, but he has a tendency to submarine his own films with absolutely jarring and insane plot twists that betray the viewer and the time they spent watching to that point. His previous feature before Eastern Promises, A History of Violence (2005), contained one of the most foolish, inconsiderate and plain bad plot twists I had seen in any movie this side of Mystery Science Theater, so I went into Eastern Promises with some trepidation.

I’m happy to report that Cronenberg was largely able to resist the temptation to crazy up Eastern Promises, largely letting the story play out logically and satisfyingly. Viggo Mortensen plays Nikolai, a low-level Russian Mafia member slowly working his way up the ranks of the London organization. Mortensen is tremendous in the role, and sufficiently menacing; his empty glare and eerie calm throughout the proceedings build him as someone to be reckoned with, but also someone above or beyond all of the ramshackle bloodshed that accompanies the Russian mob. Nikolai is expertly handled by Mortensen and screenwriter Steven Knight. He does bad things, but then he does things that aren’t so bad, or things that could be considered thoughtful and empathetic. Why?

The use of realistic Russian Mafia imagery, such as their tattoos, is highly prevalent in Eastern Promises. A making-of featurette included on the DVD described the painstaking process the makers of the film endured to make sure all of the tattoos were legitimate and truthful. It’s a nice touch, and perhaps was indicative that Cronenberg and his crew were too busy researching for the film to add on a jarring ending. B+.

The General (1928)
Director: Clyde Bruckman/Buster Keaton
Starring: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack

Enough of these “talkies”! The General is perhaps the most famous silent film this side of Charlie Chaplin, and rightfully so. Its technological achievements, including some of the most captivating train scenes I’ve ever seen in any movie, are enough to make it special. Adding the madcap goofiness and charm of Buster Keaton, a superstar of silent films, is enough to make it legendary.

Keaton plays Johnnie Gray, a locomotive engineer who is madly in love with his fiancée, Annabelle Lee (Mack). The Civil War has broken out, and Lee’s whole male family has joined the war to fight for the rebellion. Gray desperately attempts to join, but is rebuked because he is too valuable as an engineer. When Lee is captured by Union officers, Gray springs into action, resulting in a really long and really entertaining train chase scene.

The ingenuity of The General is what makes it so great. Without sound, it’s obviously more difficult to convey emotion, but Keaton is a master of the medium. He’s the king of the long face, but he’s never licked. He’s forever manic, running to and fro in an often-misguided attempt to take action, and his good-natured, innocent idiocy is hard not to get behind. He’s also very funny; his train is chasing the Union train, and at one point he attempts to fire at it with a cannonball. The cannon hits a bump, however, and soon it’s pointed directly at Keaton and his own train. It’s Keaton’s expression, a “that’s not supposed to happen” type puzzlement, that makes much of the film work. The General might be old and silent, but its quality of filmmaking and its universal story make it timeless. A-.

Catch-22 (1970)
Director: Mike Nichols
Starring: Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Richard Benjamin

The most impressive thing about Catch-22 is its ensemble cast, a who’s who of both film and comedy stars that make Catch-22 the It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World of war spoofs. Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Anthony Perkins, Art Garfunkel, Charles Grodin, Jon Voight, Bob Newhart, Martin Sheen, and even Orson Welles make appearances in Catch-22, and the enjoyment of watching such a talented cast work together saves the film from being a total stinkbomb.

Catch-22 is too goofy and esoteric for its own good. Scenes oscillate from being genuinely funny to head-scratchingly absurd, to the point where the film’s message (“Look how insane war is! It makes no sense!”) becomes muddled because much of the film makes no sense also. Individually humorous scenes bleed into hypothetical, abstract discussions of war and its meaning, adding little and serving largely to derail the film.

A bright spot is Jon Voight, who is tremendous as Milo Minderbinder, a soldier/prudent capitalist who sells the unit’s supplies to the Germans in exchange for chocolate and other nonessential goods. The rest of the cast performs admirably, but it’s what they’re performing that causes the film’s problems. C-.

(I am aware that Catch-22 is a famous novel originally written by Joseph Heller, but I’ve never read that book and can only comment on the film itself.)

The Leopard (aka Il Gattopardo) (1963)
Director: Luchino Visconti
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon
Academy Awards: Nominated (Costume Design – Color)

The Leopard is a three-hour Italian epic film detailing the later life of Don Fabrizio Salina, the prince of a principality of 1860’s Sicily. He represents the old guard in the time of Garibaldi and Italian unification, and the film looks at the changes to the country and the aristocracy through his eyes. The prince is played perfectly by Burt Lancaster, an expert American actor who contributes a strong balance of royalty, humanity and an understanding that his way is the old way, and he’ll soon be useless.

The film follows his family and the dalliances and loves of its members; much of The Leopard could be considered the stuff of soap opera or the romance novel. These scenes can be forgiven by the strong acting and the beauty of the film. Director Visconti treats every frame like a painting, playing the natural beauty of the Sicilian landscape against the man-made ornateness of the regal homes and buildings the characters frequent.

The real reason the film is a winner is Lancaster, the prince who sees his princedom and way of life crumbling around him, but who understands that this represents the natural order of things. He isn’t stupid or stubborn; he knows change is coming, and he’s had his time at the top. In a final ballroom gala scene (which lasts forty-five minutes), we can see through Lancaster how ridiculous their way of life is. He’s distant and separate from the huge mansion, the beautiful women, the handshakes and pats on the back. Why are they celebrating when they simply happened to be born into royalty? What’s the point of their parties, their loves, their existences, especially now that the writing is on the wall? We may not get answers to these questions, but we get a feeling the prince does. B+.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Director: Frank Capra
Starring: Jimmy Stewart, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold
Academy Awards: Won (Writing – Original Story). Nominated (Actor – Stewart, Supporting Actor – Harry Carey, Supporting Actor – Rains, Art Direction, Director, Film Editing, Music – Scoring, Picture, Sound – Recording, Writing – Screenplay).

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a famous film about corruption in politics, a topic that seems commonplace now but for the time drew a furor from the US government. The plot: Jefferson Smith (Stewart) a hapless, good-hearted rube from an unnamed state, is appointed to be an interim senator. Much of the first half of the film deals with Smith’s foreignness in relation to the politics of Washington, the duties of being a senator, etc. He’s trained in these areas by Saunders (Arthur), his secretary, who essentially acts as a mother figure to Smith and helps him get adjusted to his new position.

Smith is just a patsy put in place by the senior senator of the state and family friend Senator Payne (Rains), who is terrific in the role. Payne works with powerful people and has those people to thank for his position of power in the senate. When Smith begins investigating Payne’s relationships with his benefactors and threatens to unravel their schemes, Payne and his associates set out to destroy him.

This is a classic Jimmy Stewart role, where he stumbles and murmurs and acts nervous and unsure of himself. His demeanor is now iconic, but it fit the role of Jefferson Smith quite well. Rains and Arthur both contribute tremendously, as does Senate President Harry Carey, who was nominated for an Oscar for his performance.

Things in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington fly together quickly, however, in an often unbelievable fashion. This was made in a different era, but I expected a little more complexity and intrigue in the storyline. Spoilers: Payne and his friends want to force through a shady deal to build a dam, and Smith just happens to want to build a boy scout camp in the same place. In an earlier scene, the press misquotes Smith during his initial news conference, so he goes around Washington punching members of the press and anyone he sees reading a newspaper. These scenes struck me as more than a little absurd.

The ending of the film is as good as advertised, however, with Smith desperately attempting a filibuster in order to clear his name against ridiculous odds. It’s the film’s saving grace, and one of the most famous scenes in cinema history. B.

John Lacey