"CUCKOO'S NEST" STILL TOPS

         
The movie so good, it's crazy.

         
Jack Nicholson stars as Randle Patrick McMurphy in Milos Forman's triumphant version of Ken Kesey's novel.

         
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the story of a convict transferred from hard labor to a mental institution. At first this seems like a better deal, but McMurphy soon learns that the head nurse (Fletcher) doesn't appreciate his boisterous ways, and likes a rigged game.

         
Necessarily the film differs substantially from the book. Kesey's novel is a first-person present tense account from a Native American WWII vet who has been on the ward the longest. This perspective facilitates Kesey's surreal descriptions, but the filmmakers show the story from a more conventional, detached point of view.

         
Conceivably, another film version could showcase a stylized presentation including voice-over narration from Chief Bromden. But that didn't happen in 1975.

         
Produced by Michael Douglas, Cuckoo's Nest launched several careers. Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd went straight from the ward to the hit TV show "Taxi." It was also Will Sampson's first film.

         
The 6'5" Creek Nation painter and rodeo performer stands out as the guy everyone thinks is a deaf mute.

         
Two things in particular hold Cuckoo's Nest together: the characters and the setting. The characters are as believable as they are unforgettable (Kesey drew on experiences as a mental hospital orderly), and the setting is the perfect microcosm for everyone's condition.

         
Like a sun god in a resurrection myth, RPM (always going, always moving) can't help but show his fellow loonies how to have some fun and start living. He's a guy with an easy grin and calloused hands who can't believe the nonsense he sees his fellow man endure.

         
Initially he butts heads with the ward's resident intellectual, Harding (Redfield), a man who during group therapy finds himself unable to discuss his impotence. In his efforts to put things right, McMurphy, who favors friendly wagers, bets he can drive Big Nurse to distraction within a week. He also bets he can heft a water fountain in the tub room clear from the floor, chuck it through a barred window, and go downtown to wet his whistle in any bar he likes whenever he wants.

         
In the book it's not a water fountain, but a control panel.

         
Differences aside, the film is every bit as good. Alternately hilarious and sublime, packed with powerful performances and indelible images, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is as potent now as the day it was released.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST

Starring Jack Nicholson,

Louise Fletcher,

Will Sampson,

Danny DeVito,

Christopher Lloyd,

William Redfield,

Sydney Lassick,

Brad Dourif

Directed by Milos Forman

Written by Lawrence Hauben, Bo Goldman

Based on the novel by Ken Kesey

Runtime 133 minutes

Rated R

Stewart Kirby writes for

THE INDEPENDENT

and

TWO RIVERS TRIBUNE

"SHAPE OF WATER" FILLS NEED

          From the director of Pan's Labyrinth comes this Oscar-winning film about the Creature From the Black Lagoon in a love story.

          We've already seen a similar character in Guillermo del Toro's excellent Hellboy (2004): Abe Sapiens is a gill-man residing in a secret underground facility and capable of eloquent speech. This story, set in 1962, features a less-refined amphibian man freshly plucked from the Amazon (where the natives worshiped him like a god) and now contained at an Area 51-like base.

          The strangest thing about this secret place is the ebb and flow of cleaning ladies. One of them, Elisa (Hawkins), who happens to be mute, identifies with the shy, speechless captive. She alone is able to appreciate his humanity, as he in turn sees her. When Elisa learns of the fate in store for the amphibian man, she resolves to save him.

          In key respects The Shape of Water resembles Pan's Labyrinth (2006). The fantastic character (in both cases played by Doug Jones) communicates with an ingenue plagued by a militaristic antagonist. Problem is, Pan's Labyrinth is the better film. 

          Chief among this movie's detractions are certain impossibilities which simply distract, and the annoyance of watching characters make hate-worthy mistakes. Remaining vague to preserve the experience, suffice to say that tap water can't possibly fill a bathroom in the manner here shown. No way, no how. And the water wouldn't just disappear. The damage to the structure would be insurmountable. 

          We're happy to accept the idea of an amphibian man, but verisimilitude must be maintained within that framework. At one point, the commander of the secret base, Strickland (Shannon, terrifically cast), bursts into a house and starts yelling at a man's wife while the man sits helplessly and watches TV. All this does is inspire anger toward the filmmaking for such startling impossibility. 

          Slightly worse: forcing words into the mouth of a character. Stickland's explanation for the cheap green candies he eats comes out of nowhere purely to equate the candy with the 1954 B-movie favorite. 

          In another overcooked bit of fishiness, Strickland suffers a gangrenous wound after trying to torture the creature, and even though people can see and smell the life-threatening health issue, the commander is allowed to just walk around while rotting in order for us to see he's not only metaphorically but also literally rotten. This idea works with hillbillies and lepers, not base commanders. 

          In spite of the downsides it's a fun movie, well worth watching. Yet whereas Pan's Labyrinth feels legitimately artful and inventive, The Shape of Water seems more commercially-driven.

THE SHAPE OF WATER

Starring Sally Hawkins,

Michael Shannon,

Richard Jenkins,

Octavia Spencer,

Doug Jones,

Michael Stuhlbarg

Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Written by Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor

Runtime 123 minutes

Rated R

Stewart Kirby writes for

THE INDEPENDENT

and

TWO RIVERS TRIBUNE

"HOSTILES" WELL EXECUTED

Strong performances and excellent photography highlight this interesting Western.

          

Set in 1892, Hostiles is the story of Captain Joe Blocker (Bale) tasked with escorting Cheyenne war chief Yellow Hawk (Studi), now riddled with cancer after seven years behind bars, from incarceration in New Mexico to his sacred homeland in Montana. 

          

Like the John Wayne character in John Ford's The Searchers (1956) whom Martin Scorsese calls a "poet of hate," Blocker blindly hates Indians. His mind seems unable to comprehend the bigger picture. He sees European invaders as victims of the indigenous invaded. To illustrate this comparison, the filmmakers include a shot of Blocker framed by a cabin doorway just as Ford does with Wayne.

          

To put us in the narrow mindset of the lead character, who would probably be entirely unlikable if he weren't played by the great actor Christian Bale, the filmmakers begin the story with dastardly Indians doing mean, terrible things. To preserve the experience, suffice to say a blonde woman is endangered. NO! But yes.

          

Meanwhile, back at the fort, Blocker resists his orders. Tries to, anyway. But Stephen Lang (the ripped gung-ho dude with the silver crew cut in Avatar) is just the actor with the proper mental attitude to put Blocker in his place and see that Chief Yellow Hawk plus a few family members get safely escorted back to the Valley of the Bears.

          

What detracts from the film is its slow pace and the scant attention given to the Indian point of view.

          

Lots of whispery, emotional dialogue between Blocker and a couple buddies isn't by itself much of a movie. It's hard to like Blocker because it seems like half the time he's about ready to cry wistfully recalling something corny, and then the rest of the time hating Indians. But a few skirmishes here and there help maintain interest. 

          

Along the way Blocker meets the aforementioned blonde woman (Pike). The filmmakers take a page from The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and have her act all crazied-out with shock at first. Her trauma is mirrored by one of Blocker's buddies who's killed many men and feels bad about feeling nothing.

          

Also along the way Blocker takes a shady guy in chains he's required to escort--played by Ben Foster, who starred with Bale in the Western re-make 3:10 to Yuma (2007). So between him on the inside of the escorted group and various other belligerents--including pointy-headed fur trappers--on the outside, in theory at least there's plenty of conflict. 

          

As Yellow Hawk, Wes Studi exudes noble stoicism and the camera loves the lines of his face, but the comparatively few lines he's given are not in keeping with the promise of the poster wherein he is prominently figured. 

          

Shortcomings aside, Hostiles showcases yet another incredible performance by Bale. He's certainly the Robert De Niro of his generation, always investing himself in every role to an astounding degree. Like Wes Studi's Magua in The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Blocker is obsessed with hate. But unlike Magua, he doesn't have a real reason.

HOSTILES

Starring Christian Bale,

Wes Studi,

Rosamund Pike,

Bill Camp,

Adam Beach,

Tanaya Beatty,

Q'orianka Kilcher,

Ben Foster,

Stephen Lang

Written and directed by Scott Cooper

Runtime 134 minutes

Rated R

Stewart Kirby writes for

THE INDEPENDENT

and

TWO RIVERS TRIBUNE

"GOLDFINGER" SETS BOND STANDARD

The best Bond wasn't first. Before Sean Connery--indeed, a decade prior to Goldfinger--the manager of the Overlook Hotel in The Shining (1980), American actor Barry Nelson, played the world's most famous secret agent in a 1954 episode of the titillatingly titled Climax Mystery Theater.
        
It went nowhere.
        
Then, eight years later, there appeared unto humanity the first James Bond feature film, Dr. No (1962), starring the guy from Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959). That, also, went nowhere.
        
Even so, the producers, Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, remained undaunted. They improved on the first excellent spy action adventure eighteen months later with From Russia, With Love (1964). Later that same year, the filmmakers poured the budget of the first two movies combined into the seminal Agent 007 classic.
        
Like Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan, James Bond is an instantly recognizable and totally fictitious literary character known around the world. Yet whereas the creator of Holmes literally believed in magical fairies and the creator of Tarzan spent precious little time traipsing around African jungles, Ian Fleming did serve in WWII as an actual British Naval Intelligence spy.
        
Goldfinger is the first movie to show a laser, also the first Bond movie to show the spy gadget testing facility--featuring memorable exchanges between 007 and Q, who takes ejector seats very seriously and never jokes about his work. A box office first as well, it set records around the world.
        
Originally Orson Welles was considered for the role of the title character, but the part went instead to German actor Gert Frobe--who risked his life to save Jews during WWII, incidentally. (Welles did eventually play a Bond baddie in the 1967 parody film Casino Royale, with David Niven as Bond and Woody Allen as his nephew.) Because Frobe barely spoke English, the voice we hear for almost every line is dubbed by actor Michael Collins.
        
Whereas the first two films were directed by Terrence Young, Guy Hamilton's approach differs in several respects, not least of which being deft touches of humor. A fake seagull mounted on a helmet with a snorkel attached gets a laugh and is quickly discarded, but it sets the stage for outrageousness to follow, including peeling off a ninja-like full-body swimsuit to reveal suave evening attire.
        
Hamilton went on to direct three more Bond features: Diamonds are Forever (1971), with Connery, and Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man With the Golden Gun (1974) with Roger Moore.
        
Wrestler Harold Sakata plays Auric Goldfinger's unforgettable bodyguard, a squat mute called Oddjob who throws his steel-rimmed bowler hat with deadly accuracy and merely smiles when a bar of gold chucked at his chest bounces off.
        
Goldfinger's insidious plan is to take over the gold supply of Fort Knox, and do it with Pussy Galore. Unequaled in film's annals as a name, Pussy Galore may seem a stretch, but this didn't stop Honor Blackman from getting into her character.
        
Featuring an Aston Martin with spikes emerging from the wheels inspired by the bad guy's chariot in Ben-Hur (1959), moments of noir-ish mystery, and a soundtrack that outsold the Beatles, Goldfinger isn't just the iconic Bond film, it's one of the greatest movies ever made.


Stewart Kirby writes for
The Independent
and
Two Rivers Tribune