Sergio Leone: Once Upon A Time...

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968)

Sergio Leone. When you say the name to a film fan they most commonly think of Spaghetti westerns. I went to the Music Box on January 22 to see what is personally my favorite western: Once Upon A Time In the West. The epic scope of the film is what did it for me. It revolves around 4 people: Jill, a woman who is coming into town to meet her soon to be husband, the other characters being Cheyenne, Harmonica, and Frank. The opening 15 minute are some of the best 15 minutes of cinema as 3 outlaws contracted by Frank are waiting in a train station for Harmonica. The score by Ennio Morricone is one of my favorites as well and ranks up there with his score for The Mission as one of his best. This is filmmaking at its finest and the images captured throughout the film depict that.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (1984)

I recently watched Once Upon A Time In America for the first time. It is a 4 hour film but it had me completely drawn to the characters and story for that time. Very few director can accomplish that. The film has had a checkered past. It was originally to be released as a 4 hour film and debuted as such to tremendous praise at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. Soon afterward it was completely butchered down to 2 hours. Home video and DVD have saved this film by restoring its original 4 hour running time. The director's cut which has not been released yet is said to 4 1/2 hours. I would love to see that version and compare the two.
The film follows five bunch of kids over the span of five decades. These types of films are among my favorites because you get to study the characters growth from childhood up through adulthood. The childhood friends become criminals but still attain a sense of loyalty to one another. Loyalty that will be strongly tested throughout their adult lives. The violence in Sergio's films is always sudden. Boom. Done. Out. The film itself opens with two very graphic images and pits the viewer right in the middle of the storm. Many have commented on the structure in it being akin to an opium dream. DeNiro starts off the film in an opium den and the film is bookended by it. In a sense it is. This is a dream of America gone awry.

Lost Season 5 Premiere

The best series on network television returned with a riveting season 5 opener yesterday. I really hope they do more origin story on the Dharma Initiative, the smoke monster and the island itself. The best news about this season is that the flash forwards and flashbacks are few and far between.

There were alot of things going on in this opener. Hopefully they also shed some light on what the hell happened to Claire last season. A good theory I read up on one of my forums is that The Others were waiting for Locke, because he shifted to the past and met them, and they had to wait years for him to come back after the crash.

Overall I really like the direction the season is heading: answering more questions as opposed to asking. They have enough questions to last them this season as well as the final sixth season in 2010. One thing's for certain, it will be interesting looking back on confusing episodes like this after the show is over and putting the pieces together.

The Wrestler review

One of the most poignant and heartfelt quotes I've heard from a film in a LONG time that completely sums up Rourke's character is "The only time I get hurt it out there [outside the ring]." That quote rings true throughout the film as he tries to reconnect with his daughter played by Evan Rachel Wood. He also tries to connect with a stripper played by Marisa Tomei. Both of them perform in front of a crowd and both have professions which are not taken seriously by the general public.

As a wrestling fan, I have been told so many times "Wrestling is fake. They're acting." Well, the punches and kicks are fake and the whole role playing is acting indeed.
But how does one learn how to take a chair shot or get thrown through glass? You don't. And that's what the film portrays so authentically.

What Mickey Rourke does with this performance is amazing. He's not playing Randy "The Ram" Robinson...he IS The Ram. It's what Daniel Day Lewis did with last year with There Will Be Blood.

The director, Darren Aronofsky, whose previous works include Pi, Requiem For A Dream and The Fountain has proven to be absolutely fearless when it comes to portraying a character. Not many directors would want to take the route that Aronofsky did at the end of Requiem For A Dream and I applaud him for his honest character portrayals. The filmmaking here is very much in the vein of John Cassavetes. Character driven, many scenes being improvised and a very documentary feel to it all.

This film legitimizes what wrestlers do in the ring and the lasting effects it has not only on their bodies but on those close to them. Rourke's powerhouse performance is sure to get him an Oscar nod and he clearly deserves the win.

2008 Wrap Up

1. The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky)
2. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan)
3. Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle)
4. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton)
5. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson)
6. Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman)
7. Milk (Gus Van Sant)
8. The Visitor (Thomas McCarthy)
8. Doubt (John Patrick Shanley)
9. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher)
10. In Bruges (Martin McDonagh)

Honorable Mention:
Man On Wire (James Marsh)
Changeling (Clint Eastwood)
Burn After Reading (Joel & Ethan Coen)
Iron Man (Jon Favreau)

TV SERIES
1. True Blood Season 1
2. Lost Season 4 (Some of the best writing network TV has to offer)
3. The Wire Season 5 (My all time favorite show comes to a close after 5 stellar seasons.)
4. Dexter Season 3
5. In Treatment Season 1 (For a show that takes place entirely in a psychiatrist's office, it sure gets deep into character development)


ALBUMS
1. Cynic- Traced In Air
2. Steven Wilson- Insurgentes
3. Opeth- Watershed
4. Enslaved- Vertabrae
5. Marillion- Happiness Is the Road
6. Testament- The Formation of Damnation
7. Beardfish- Sleeping In Traffic Pt. 2
8. Portishead- Third
9. Brian Eno & David Byrne- Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
10. Bloodbath- The Fathomless Mastery
11. Dungen- 4
13. Metallica- Death Magnetic
13. Sigur Ros- Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spillum Endalaust
14. Days Between Stations- Days Between Stations
15. 17. Protest the Hero- Fortress
16. Earth- The Bees Made Honey In the Lion's Skull
17. Nine Inch Nails- Ghosts I-IV
18. Trivium. Shogun
19. Secret Chiefs 3- Xaphan: Book of Angels Volume 9
20. No Man- Schoolyard Ghosts
21. The Mars Volta- Bedlam In Goliath
22. Meshuggah- obZen
23. Elbow- The Seldom Seen Kid
24. Van Der Graaf Generator- Trisector

Christmas 2008

Had a very good Christmas. I got all that I wanted on my list.
Here's a rundown of the things I got:

Twin Peaks: The Complete Series Gold Box Edition
The Insider
Network 2-Disc Special Edition
Vertigo 2-Disc Special Edition
The Wild Bunch 2-Disc Special Edition
Frank Zappa- Baby Snakes
Cynic- Focus
Peter Gabriel- Security
Peter Hammill- Chameleon In the Shadow of the Night
Marillion- Marbles (2CD)
World Almanac 2009
Clothing
Money

Watched A Christmas Story during the 24 hour Christmas Story marathon on TBS. "Be sure to drink your ovaltine..." "You'll shoot your eye out" "ohhhhhh fuuuuudge" Still my favorite Christmas movie.

Way down in the hole: The Wire

"All the pieces matter"
-Lester Freamon


Late last year, after hearing tons of critical praise heaped upon this show, I decided to check it out. It took about 4-5 episodes for me to really appreciate it. But after that, it became one of the most addicting shows. I don't know how people made it through waiting each week for the episodes. The Wire is very different from just about every other TV show I have seen. It is pretty much impossible for someone to start in the middle of this series and understand everything going on. It unfolds like a great novel. Critics have compared it to Charles Dickens' work in its detail. It touches on the things you are most likely never see in a network show: the humanity behind the victims caught in the drug war.

THEMES
The overarching theme of this show is America as a massive broken institution. Perpetuating the system instead of fixing it and helping the individuals within it. David Simon noted that it is much like a Greek tragedy but in place of the gods, there are institutions.

CHARACTERS
When it comes to character development, this show is unsurpassed. The arcs that these characters go through from Season One all the way through Season 5 are pretty spectacular. The show is very much cyclical in nature and many fates of the characters are cyclical. One of the other important themes of the show is how one single decision can completely change someone's life. For example: In season 4, a kid witnesses a murder. He goes to school and ends up getting used as a lookout for two boys end up assaulting a girl in the bathroom. The principal gets wind of this and sits down with him. Thinking that he'll be able to get off by telling the principal about the murder, he does so. That decision alone becomes his undoing and causes the character to make a complete 180 by the end of his story arc.

The Wire is first and foremost an unapolagetic and bleak show and has a very cynical view of America. The people who go against the system and fight the institutions usually end up getting screwed over in the end.

THE SEASONS
Season 1 focused on the drug trade. Centering on the Barksdale Organization led by Avon Barksdale and Russell "Stringer" Bell. It basically centers around the drug war and how it only results in tragedy.

Season 2 focuses on the death of the working class. Whereas most shows continue where they left off at Season 1, this show starts a whole new case based around illegal immigration through the ports and how dock workers are caught up with a criminal organization.

Season 3 is where the show really hits its stride. It is here where politics are introduced. The main theme for this season is reform and if is it possible. Marlo Stanfield is also introduced as a rival gang leader who seeks to own the corners that the Barksdale organization owned. Also in this season, Sgt. Howard 'Bunny' Colvin creates Hamsterdam. What Colvin proposes is to take all the mid level drug dealers in his sector and put them into one area. While this idea may sound good to some, it ends up creating a sort of hell for those in that particular area. As always, The Wire never provides easy answers to its problems and this is an example.


Season 4 is without a doubt, television's finest moment. 13 of the most riveting and emotionally gut wrenching hours of television. This season focuses on education or the miseducation of America. The main characters are 4 young boys: Dukie, Michael, Namond and Randy. Their stories are the catalyst to the entire season. What David Simon was asking with this season was: Where do the Avon Barksdales, Stinger Bells and Marlo Stanfields come from?

Politics take second stage in this season with a white Tommy Carcetti running against a black incumbent mayor, Clarence Royce.

Season 5 is about the media and how misinformation and technology, all have an impact on journalism. Everyone's storyline comes to a close in this season. What Simon was asking this season was if The Wire got all of this right, then how come no one else is paying attention to it?
It deals with the stories that the people want to hear and how real stories get buried.

In summary, this is the most satisfying and ambitious show I have ever seen. The characters are richly detailed. We most likely will not see a show like The Wire again.