Shadows and Fog and Walker: Two Comedies About Sticking Our Noses Where They Don't Belong

Shadows and Fog, by Woody Allen, 1991


I've seen most of Woody Allen's films at this point, although I've fallen off in recent years. I was pretty sure I had seen most, if not all, of the best ones, which left me pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed his 1991 film, Shadows and Fog.

A darkly comedic homage to German Expressionism, Shadows and Fog has some really beautiful black and white cinematography. In fact, there are tons of shadows and lots of fog in the movie, as I suppose should be expected. Set, I think, in the 1920's, a serial killer is stalking the streets and strangling his victims. Kleinman, a nebbishy 50-ish Woody Allen type, played by Woody Allen, is awakened in the middle of the night by the men of the neighborhood, who are forming a vigilante group to hunt this guy down. He is peer pressured into joining, despite his well-founded reservations.

At the same time, at a travelling circus outside of town, a couple, a sword swallower (Mia Farrow) and a clown (John Malkovich) to be exact, get in a fight over cheating and having kids, and the sword swallower, Irmy, leaves the clown. In the city, she falls in with a prostitute (Lily Tomlin), who takes her into her whorehouse for safety, and the two main stories begin to collide.

I really liked Shadows and Fog. The story is complex, funny, spooky, and interesting, Allen's directing is at its best, and the cast is top notch. It includes Allen, Farrow, Malkovitch, Tomlin, Madonna, Kathy Bates, Jodie Foster, Donald Pleasance, John Cusack, and even a brief appearance by William H. Macy. I especially enjoyed Pleasance's small part as a coroner, and Cusack as a young student infatuated with Farrow, who he believes to be a prostitute. The payoff at the end is pretty great too.

Woody Allen has made a lot of movies. I'm not sure where Shadows and Fog would rank among them, but I'd put it somewhere in the top half, and that's saying quite a lot.

Walker, by Alex Cox, 1987


I didn't know what to expect when I turned on Alex Cox's trippy anti-Biopic, Walker. Cox, director of Repo Man and Sid & Nancy (which I still haven't seen!), brought his punk-rock ethos to the Historical Biography genre, and destroyed his own Hollywood career in the process. Walker is a truly strange mess of a movie, and I kind of loved it.

Walker is the story of William Walker (Ed Harris), an American soldier of fortune in the 1850's who leads a group of mercenaries into Nicaragua to liberate the locals, only to take over and become dictator himself. Cox is not so much interested in historical facts, however, and he plays fast and loose with the truth. He's more interested in commenting on what America was actually doing in Latin America in the 1980's, and he viciously comments on it throughout.

There's lots of hilarious black comedy in Walker, such as the battalion drummer who asks to sit out on the next day's battle because he's noticed in all the war paintings that the drummer is always one of the corpses. Walker looks him in the eye like a holy man and says "as long as I am your commander, no harm shall come to you." Of course, at the battle he is gunned down violently and repeatedly, as Walker is somehow able to walk through all the carnage magically unscathed.

In addition to the comedy and the carnage, there is a surrealist element to Cox's film as well. As the movie progresses, he starts sneaking in historical anachronisms, to remind us that this isn't the 1850's he's talking about, this is today (1987). At first it's something like someone lighting a fuse with a Zippo lighter, or a guy drinking a bottle of Coke, but by the end, there are helicopters disrupting the period authenticity.

Add to all this an excellent, moody musical score by Joe Strummer of The Clash, and you have in Walker a great piece of anti-establishment cinema; shocking, funny, violent, and rebellious. I think it was slammed by critics at the time of its release, but like the best cult movies, has later experienced some rehabilitation and found an audience. Some even hold it up as Alex Cox's best film. I still need to watch Sid and Nancy, so I don't know yet. I sure dug it, though.

The Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven, in addition to being a rollicking good adventure, holds a place of importance in the landscape of world cinema. Or at least, I think it does. In 1954, with his Seven Samurai, director Akira Kurosawa redefined the samurai movie genre by infusing it with the visual style and values of a John Ford western. Six years later, in 1960, Hollywood would come full circle by remaking a Japanese Western into a Western Western.

The world of cinema was getting increasingly smaller, as international films had an increasing influence on filmmakers of the time. The directors of the French New Wave looked to Hollywood auteurs such as Alfred Hitchcock for inspiration. Not long after, the next generation of Hollywood directors, (Coppola, Malick, Scorsese, Lucas, etc.) would look to Kurosawa and the French New Wave. Nowadays, directors draw their influences from around the world and throughout the last century.

Directed by John Sturges, The Magnificent Seven follows the structure of Seven Samurai fairly closely, though in a faster paced, more truncated way. While Seven Samurai is an epic, The Magnificent Seven is a thoroughly enjoyable piece of popcorn entertainment. Sturges clearly has a lot of reverence for Kurosawa, and shows it in his work, with many direct nods or homages to his source material throughout the movie.

The seven in question are led by Yul Brynner, probably cast just as much for his bald head as for his screen presence (the character in the Japanese version shaves his head). He is recruited by a farming village in Mexico to form a posse to help rid them of an army of 40 bandits bent on stealing their crops. Rounding out the posse are such icons of manliness as Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson (the youngest I've ever seen him, still looks 70), and James Coburn.

The movie doesn't try to mimic Seven Samurai entirely. The seven don't all have the same motivations and personalities as their counterparts, for example. Also, the bandits are given more of a presence; rather than just being faceless bad guys, they are led by Eli Wallach.

Two of the samurai are sort of collapsed into one, in the case of Chico, played by Horst Buchholz. He takes both the role of the eager, hotheaded drifter who shoehorns his way into the group, and the young, naive kid learning the ropes who finds love with a peasant girl. I didn't really care for this. Buchholz would have worked fine as the kid, but he wasn't fit to fill the shoes of the great Toshiro Mifune, in what was possibly his most memorable and iconic role. They should have looked at that character as just as important a role as the Yul Brynner character, and found an appropriate actor.

The Magnificent Seven is as enjoyable as a streamlined remake of a longer, better foreign film can be. It's fun to watch so many superstars sharing the screen together. The score by Elmer Bernstein is tremendous and memorable, and is still referenced in Western movie scores. Also, I was glad to hear that Akira Kurosawa was a fan of the movie.

The Outlaw Josey Wales

Wow, looking back at my reviews, it's been a long time since I've done a Western. Unless you count Cowboys and Aliens, I guess, and that movie is maybe best left forgotten. Well, seeing as I'm now a Texan, it's about time I saw Clint Eastwood's The Outlaw Josey Wales.

The Outlaw Josey Wales is about a simple farmer, whose family is murdered by a bunch of out-of-control jerks who happen to be fighting on the side of The Union. I don't know my Civil War too well, but I got the sense that they were just mercenary types, not actual uniformed enlisted men. Josey is found brooding and grieving at his son's grave by another group of men who are on the trail of those guys. He winds up joining them and fighting as a mercenary type on the Confederate side.

When the war ends, his group is persuaded by their leader to go turn in their arms to a senator and swear an oath to the Union. Everybody goes but Josey, whose war is not yet over. When the group is betrayed and gunned down, Josey goes crackers on them and mows them down with a Gatling gun. He manages to escape with his own life and that of a badly wounded kid that used to ride with him. There's a huge price on his head now and everybody and their mother is after him.

As the movie progresses, Josey Wales stays one step ahead of his pursuers, outsmarting them when he can and shooting them when he can't. He finds allies on his way, and forms a new family of sorts. Eventually it all comes to a head in a big awesome shootout.

Clint Eastwood is doing his tough guy thing, which we all know he's the best at. He's not quite The Man with No Name, since we know his story from the start, but he's almost as iconic in this role. He chews tobacco through the whole movie, which in and of itself is disgusting, but when you add to it the constant spitting, it's doubly so. And then add to it that he's always aiming his spit at things. You know, whatever he can aim at: scorpions, dogs, dead guy's heads, live guy's heads, horses, shoes, cattle. The one thing he never aims it at is a spittoon. If anybody needs any gift ideas for Josey Wales, let me know.

The supporting cast is pretty great. Josey's "family" consists of an Indian girl he rescues from being raped at a trading post, a clever old Cherokee man who acts as his foil, and an old lady coming down from the north with her granddaughter, who he rescues after their wagon train gets raided. I liked the old Cherokee man, he got a lot of the best lines.

So The Outlaw Josey Wales was another very good western revenge flick. I still prefer the heightened reality and stylization of the Sergio Leone films, while Eastwood's directing style is much more simple; clear and straightforward storytelling. Josey Wales definitely has better dialogue than the Leone films, since it wasn't all worked out after the fact in overdubbing. I could have done with less spitting on things, but I bet that was pretty historically accurate. A lot of spit in the old west and not nearly enough spittoons. It was a new frontier.

Cowboys and Aliens

Hey, look, I'm back! Sorry I haven't been around much, I've been moving. It will still be another week or so before I start getting these reviews up on a more regular basis. And now, on to the review.

A couple years ago, when they announced Cowboys & Aliens as Jon Favreau's movie after Iron Man 2, I was pretty excited. Throw in a script worked on by the cocreator of Lost, Damon Lindelof, executive producer Steven Spielberg, and stars Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, and I thought we might be in for a real treat.

Cut to this summer, when all the promotional materials started coming out for Cowboys & Aliens. The trailer was alright, I guess, but it looked so... serious. The posters didn't look very interesting at all. Is that the stars of the movie photoshopped onto the Independence Day poster in place of the White House? Hell, even the 7-11 cups looked bland. Come on, Hollywood! Is this what you call hype?

I still held out hope for the movie. I've seen much worse advertising for what turned out to be good movies before. I've liked every Favreau film so far, to some degree. Plus, what a cool idea. Cowboys.... and Aliens! It's like Cowboys & Indians, but instead of boring old Indians, it's ALIENS! Still, I couldn't help but feel a little bit underwhelmed and unexcited for the movie itself.

Finally, a couple days ago, I saw the movie. And, sad to say, the promotional materials do a pretty decent job of representing the movie. It's a little sad, because I really felt like the filmmakers, writers, and stars all really did try to do something new and a little bit different. Swing and a miss.

The big risk they took was taking it all so damn seriously, a risk that I don't think paid off. The inherent absurdity of the title is completely ignored. There's no sense of adventure or fun. There isn't even a comic relief character, a role I was sure would be filled by Sam Rockwell. Daniel Craig plays his role as a stone-faced, no-nonsense tough guy. The role of the hero in a movie like this might have been better served by someone who knows how to wink a little at the audience, like Robert Downey Jr. (who the role was originally offered to) or Harrison Ford in his Indiana Jones heyday.

The rest of the cast do their best, but the serious tone set by Favreau and Craig flatten everybody else. All of these actors have demonstrated an ability to have fun with a role and elevate a movie, but aren't really allowed to in this one. My favorite characters were actually the sheriff and the preacher, played by Keith Carradine and Clancy Brown. Though neither were in it much, these guys actually felt way more at home in the western setting than their A-List costars.

Storywise, the movie did manage to hold my attention. There is a mystery at play, of Daniel Craig's identity, and of the intentions of the aliens, and it is slowly revealed via Lost-ian flashback. I wanted to know the answers, and the answers provided actually did have some interesting ideas in them. Jon Favreau is a capable director and storyteller, and I can't say I had any problems with the movie from a visual standpoint.

The aliens themselves were a big disappointment. They're pretty much the standard slimy monsters of all the other big invasion movies. Why are all these higher intelligences always maneating beasts that snarl and don't wear clothes? Wouldn't it be far more interesting if the aliens were more similar to humans? If they were, they could have better reflected our own brutality against the Native Americans as we eradicated them and plundered the land for its resources. Hell, just give them a spoken language and some clothes and we'd be able to see ourselves in them.

Later in the movie, there's a plot development that gave me pause and caused me to think, "whoa, that's pretty ballsy and kind of cool", but then it turned out to be a fakeout plot development that led to another plot development that made me think, "whoa, that's still pretty ballsy, but in the opposite direction". They might have gone a little too far with that one.

So, in the end, Cowboys & Aliens, though it really does try, doesn't really pay off. It didn't work for me, but I've got to give these guys a little credit for attempting something a little off the beaten path. That is, until it finds its way back onto the path with those aliens. It could have done with a little more self awareness, or conversely, if they really want to be taken seriously, a less ridiculous title.

High Noon

Do you remember when you were younger and when people asked you what kind of music you like and your inevitable response was "Everything but Country"? Westerns were, appropriately enough, my "Everything but Country" for movies. Over time, I grew up and learned that good country music does exist, and I have since revised my response to "a little bit of everything but mainly glam rock, punk, and new wave from the 70's." That last part was irrelevant. My point is, it wasn't until recently that I finally decided to give westerns a try.

After now having seen Sergio Leone's hyperstylized deconstructionist takes on the western genre, I'm trying to learn a little more about the American movies that inspired them. The first one I watched is one of the more famous ones, and a huge influence on Leone, Fred Zinneman's High Noon.

In High Noon, Gary Cooper plays Will, an all around good guy and the marshal of a small town. He just got married to Grace Kelly and is on his way off to celebrate when he catches wind that some bad guys have blown into town, and they're waiting for the 12:00 train to arrive, because Frank Miller is on it. Frank Miller is bad news, so the Marshal postpones his honeymoon to fight the bad guys, even if he has to do it alone, because it's the right thing to do.

This movie might be one of the best uses of the ticking clock device I've ever seen. They tell you right off that shit hits the fan at noon, and that's what we as viewers are all waiting to see. Marshal Will spends the movie trying to recruit help from the townsfolk, who have all turned yella, and getting his affairs in order, since he knows he might not make it through his showdown with Frank Miller. The showdown at noon does pay off, too. One man vs. four. Those odds don't sound that bad nowadays, when we have heroes that take on a hundred faceless bad guys on their own, but it feels like a big deal in this movie, as it should.

The final scene is great too. I expected a big speech or something, espousing 1950's values, but instead, the scene plays out silently, infinitely more powerful.

I'm glad I have seen High Noon. Before the other night, I just assumed it was directed by John Ford and starred John Wayne (like all westerns). Now, I feel a little bit more educated. Plus, it was a helluva fun movie. B+.