@DJBogTrotter’s Films on TV Picks
Pick of the Week: No Country For Old Men, Wednesday 13th June, 9pm, Film Four
Early 2008 proved to be a bit of a high point for twenty first century American cinema as this masterpiece arrived swiftly after another dusty taciturn epic that dealt with the brutal activities of amoral men (There Will Be Blood). The Coen brothers have been accused of being gifted filmmakers who produce deft, knowing but ultimately glib films, like Raisin’ Arizona or The Hudsucker Proxy, but every so often they tuck away the arched eyebrows and deliver a work of true moral heft. Fargo was one such opus and No Country For Old Men delivers a similarly bleak assessment of what the less-than-virtuous among us are capable of. It follows Josh Brolin, in a performance that turned him into a Hollywood leading man, who stumbles upon a bag full of cash left over from a drug deal that goes horrendously wrong. Hot on his trail are a moral lawman, the ever-reliable Tommy Lee Jones, and the force of nature that is Chigurh, a chilling turn from Javier Bardem. As ever with the Coens, their take on proceeding is not always clear. Is it a condemnation on how violent and immoral we have become or rather a statement of how good men have struggled to contain the actions of bad men – it has been ever thus and ever will be – both readings are possible. Woody Harrelson, Kelly MacDonald and Gareth Dillahunt round out an excellent cast, but this film belongs to Bardem. The actor complained that he had been lumbered with a haircut that guaranteed that he wouldn’t get laid (somehow, I think he probably managed well enough anyhow), but it certainly added to the character’s creepy feeling of otherness. He is an expression of the implacable machinations of fate and the inevitability of time as it marches all of towards the grave. Chigurh is coming, Chigurh is coming for all of us.
The Godfather, Tuesday 12th June, 9pm, Film Four
Did you really need to be reminded to watch one of the greatest films ever made? If you’ve somehow managed to make it to this point in your life without having been seduced by that trumpet solo, then it’s time to luxuriate in the epic grandeur of the movie that launched the gangster genre into the modern era. And even if you have seen it repeatedly, perhaps it’s time to revisit the Corleones and see how they hold up in the post Sopranos and Wire landscape. If this is your umpteenth viewing then you could always ignore the more obvious pleasures – seeing Pacino before scenery became a staple part of his diet, Bruce Surtees’ gloomy atmospheric cinematography or Brando’s extraordinary career resurrecting performance – and concentrate on its subtler qualities – the perfection of the supporting cast with Talia Shire’s slow disillusionment with the life of the mob wife and John Cazale’s embittered younger brother Fredo, the confidence of the then emerging young director, Francis Coppola, as he spends a good 20-30 minutes letting us enjoy a full on Italian wedding or the sly sophistication of the writing. Michael’s line “Papa, I’m with you now.” when he arrives at the hospital, to find that his father’s bodyguards have deserted him, is not just an indication that his father is now safe, but is also reveals where Michael’s loyalties now lie.
Guilty Pleasure: Face/Off, Wednesday 13th June, 10.45pm, BBC1
When I first saw this film, I immediately rolled my eyes heavenwards at how Hollywood could get the casting so wrong by giving Travolta the role of the earnest lawman, whilst Cage floundered with pretending to be an over-the-top drug dealing villain. It soon becomes clear why though, as the two leads swap roles (or faces anyway, but then, curiously, they also adopt each other’s body shapes) in this gloriously loopy action caper. Cage is arrested and using a revolutionary new technique, Travolta is able to borrow his face and go undercover as him in order to discover the location of a bomb (yeah, the pleasures of this film don’t lie within the groundbreaking originality of its writing, that’s for sure). Unfortunately Cage wakes up and manages to grab Travolta’s face and then wipes all trace of the operation. With John Woo at the helm, you know you’re going to get lots of slo-mo gurning, lots of two-handed gunplay and lots of earnest staring into the distance as a dove flutters by in the background. Travolta and Cage certainly have the good sense not to take it too seriously. Travolta in particular relishes a role that allows him to be a ruthless baddie, who initially revels in the freedom of being thought a law enforcer, but then struggles to restrain his maverick instincts that would blow his cover.
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Saturday 16th June, 3.45pm, ITV2
Still Spielberg’s best film. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just because later films, such as Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, tackle ‘more important’ subjects that this somehow makes them more important films. A mistake that the Academy Awards made by overlooking this film to give the Best Picture Oscar to Ghandi (when was the last time you watched that film?) This tale of a young boy, Elliot, who makes friends with a alien expertly explores the loneliness of the urban childhood and is probably Spielberg’s most personal work. Both protagonists feel abandoned (Elliot’s father is absent) and alienated by the world around them and seek solace in each other’s friendship. What starts out as a sweet innocent story soon turns darker as the ‘scientists’ arrive and seek to separate the pair. It may overegg the emotional manipulation at times but, for the most part, Spielberg steers it the right side of maudlin. For the twentieth anniversary reissue, Spielberg pulled a ‘Lucas’ and rejigged the effects, added some scenes and, most famously, airbrushed out the guns that the FBI agents were brandishing. He later recanted and stated that he should have messed with the original as it denied people the chance to relive their childhood memories of watching the film (are you listening George?). So it’ll be interesting to see which version is currently deemed to be the official version