Messages

Bob Peck's performance in EoD is magnificent, isn't it? The inner turmoil he's able to convey, often using no more than his eyes, is just astonishing.

Something sorely lacking from Gibson's Rockatansky/Riggs reprise. The performances in the TV serial at the very least do what they need to, and then there's the marvellous Charles Kay and Ian McNiece. Even Brian bloody Croucher doesn't spoil things.

Ah, cheers for that. I was struggling to remember what prompted Clemmy's response. And after several attempts at trying to play it, here's the exchange between Craven and the psychiatrist:

CRAVEN: She kept asking me to be strong . . . like a tree.

PSYCHIATRIST: A tree?

CRAVEN: That was how she saw me. Just . . .

PSYCHIATRIST: And you became angry with her. Why?

CRAVEN: Because . . . she allowed herself to be . . . abused. Got herself into such a mess.

Re-watching it, Craven's reaction immediately after his using the word 'abused' seems to be one of realization followed by his changing the subject, which is probably why it registered with me. Although despite what psychoanalysts might have us believe, sometimes a tree really is just a tree.

I don't remember any confession of abuse by Craven.

Assuming I didn't mishear, it's during his spell in hospital.

He kisses the dildo cos it's something personal owned by his recently dead daughter. It's not supposed to be sexual. It's probably the first time Craven, an uptight Yorkshire man realises his daughter was an adult with a sex life and not a child anymore,  a beautifully wrought, tender moment. What shocks him even more then is when he finds the gun, another aspect to his daughter he never knew. Gun and dildo having opposite connotations, propelling Craven to "investigate" who is daughter really was. If it were true about the abuse I think his daughter's ghost would have had something to say of it since she is his conscience in the story.

When deeply grieved, people often do seemingly odd but authentic acts.

I'm in total agreement with that. And would have thought little more of it were it not for the hospital scene and Clemmy's using the word 'incest' as she and Craven step into a taxi. Again, I didn't have the means to verify what I thought I heard (Grud knows how I got by before I had access to even a video player). Nor is it something I've any interest in making a big deal about beyond an observation; but, for argument's sake, the implication would seem to be the incest was either consensual or that Emma had blocked it from her memory.

Emma Craven is the daughter of (no, not John but) Ronald Craven, the main character. She appears throughout the TV serial as either a figment or a ghost, the former being more likely given the supposed rewrites asked for by Martin Campbell and Bob Peck (although the latter may well have been Troy Kennedy Martin's intention, originally). It's this interplay itself the film version does surprisingly well; that is until the ending which, no matter how ambiguous/symbolic it's intended (presumably), it lacks the impact of the 1985 original. Of which:

The incest. I'm as likely wrong about this but for me the ending is all the more heartbreaking for it. It's inferred in [spoiler]an early scene in which Craven kisses his daughter's vibrator; he later confesses to having "abused" Emma. There's also a curious scene in which, accompanied by Clemmy (Zoe Wanamaker), she uses the very word itself[/spoiler]. As with some other details, none of this I was able to check because my sodding DvD player's on the fritz.

I'll have an Old Thumper, please.

More clarity, please!

The morning-after version:

My interest in watching the film was piqued by the original's reputation, which I had never seen. Hired out on DvD, I found the TV series compelling stuff, so much so I watched it in one sitting. Well-acted and scripted, it's of cultural and social significance, resonating it seems through any number of crypto-political dramas since and voicing concerns (perhaps unfounded although understandable) of the time.

The big screen version, however, is simply a dumb action flick that had much the same effect on me as my initial post here. Even without the six hour running time of the original, two hours is still sufficient to pace a tale of political and corporate intrigue and conspiracy. Problem is, this isn't a proper adapation. It's the edited highlights but now with added cell phones to make it relevant for an audience twenty-five years hence. The plot doesn't develop organically, it just kind of unfolds because that's what happened in the TV series.

A truly contemporary spin on the original might have warranted a remake, or perhaps something that explored Troy Kennedy Martin's less mundane allusions.

Now, what bastard's drunk all my beer?

Saw this yesterday and I'm STILL trying to fathom it. No, not the TV series, but the BIG SCREEN remake; which, if nothing else, was incentive enough for me to hire out first the 1985 original (FINALLY, having never seen it), courtesy of my local library (despite having incurred a fivepoundfine due to their incompetence when it came to renewing some books. Twats).

Mel's on semi-automatic mode, mostly sleepwalking his way through LETHAL WEAPON 1.5 sans the narrative cohesion. Sure, with almost four hours less to play with, a certain amount of paring down both in plot (Gaia) and characterization (incest) is to be expected; yet stuff simply happens often for no reason than to give people something to do. Once the conspiracy is revealed (far too early, which would have been fine if there'd been a twist towards the end), the movie has bugger-all else to do except indulge in Mel's gulping gung-ho antics. I'm still unsure exactly what purpose Jedburgh serves (now THERE is where that twist might have been), even if Ray Winstone's final scene has a quiet coolness about it.

And yet, it's the TV series not the film that's doing an Emma Craven, despite the final episode's drawn-out silliness. So much so, I was even comparing moobs with Ian McNiece, last night.

Goodness, you look barely an age, far less several epochs!

Weekends (and occasional days during the school hols) at my grandparents', staying in or sneaking into my uncle's bedroom while he was away at uni/out with chums/on a dig/protesting a fox hunt. As with TordelBack, I was already an Eaglet (though no Squaxx dek Embargo, me).

My first Prog as a reglear, however? That would be this courtesy of WH Smith, the Wellie Centre in Aldershot:

Judge Judy in MC-1?

Judge Judy and Executioner, as someone (Nick Frost?) once said.

It's usually the racketeers that use lawyers, so perhaps only the rich are able to afford them.

He also escaped from a locked room.

The problem then is why would God restore Eli's sight to complete a mission that serves only to once more divide humankind rather than unite it.

Surprised also no one's picked up on Chris Weston's involvement in this.

Ah, sod the SPOILER tags. If you don't want to know, look away at the footie results or something.

My interpretation of Eli's sight was that it had been restored for his mission. Once he'd reached Alcatraz, it was no longer needed. Of course, his irides suddenly becoming opaque might just have been a clumsy allusion to his blindness.

Apart from it being 'fifteen years in the making', how much did the budget in the end compromise Cameron's vision? There's nothing truly alien in the film-as-made, if there had been I doubt AVATAR would have surpassed TITANIC as the highest-grossing film of all-time.

Have a look at the Ennis version, the twisted green psycho is as mental as ever.

Doesn't sound much like the Mekon, then. But then, which Mekon?

Surprisingly, I didn't have too much of a problem with this once I realized what was going on. Found it to be a mostly entertaining slice of Christian propaganda with a few cool bits thrown in, even if it does bottle the ending. LOVED the soundtrack and look, though. Quite reminiscent of any number of post-apocalypses (apocalypsi?) from the 1980s.

Aside from my being godless wormfood, my main problem however is that [spoiler]it lacks any historical sense of how the Bible came to be. Just before yer man Eli starts regurgitating Genesis, I was hoping he'd be revealed as himself illiterate and start dictating something of his own. A personal embellishment that's in the 'tell', as Savannah Nix would have it.[/spoiler]

I've no idea how the supposed rewrites changed the film, but yeah. As summed up by Cosmic Ray (no less), [spoiler]'Guy delivers Bible to West Coast liberals so they can put it on a shelf'.[/spoiler]