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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 07/11/97 -- Vol. 16, No. 2
MT Chair/Librarian:
Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 732-957-5619 mleeper@lucent.com
HO Chair: John Jetzt MT 2E-530 732-957-5087 jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 732-949-7076 njs@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist:
Rob Mitchell MT 2D-536 732-957-6330 rlmitchell1@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 3E-433 732-957-2070 eleeper@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-933-2724 for details. The New Jersey Science Fiction Society
meets on the third Saturday of every month in Belleville; call
201-432-5965 for details. The Denver Area Science Fiction
Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of every month at
Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
1. URL of the week: http://www.teleport.com/~arden/. Eby's
CyberScroll--lots of interesting links. [-ecl]
===================================================================
2. Now why would I get involved with anything so dangerous as The
Wings of Death? I tend to be kind of a cautious guy. That may
have something to do with it. Maybe everybody flirts with danger
someplace. Some people skydive. Some bungee jump. With me it was
being willing to be brushed by the Wings of Death. Maybe I felt I
had to face the wings. It just is sort of a Man Thing. Once the
gauntlet has been thrown down, it must be picked up.
It all started on my last trip to Manhattan. In the Strand
Bookstore, Evelyn found a book that was a guide to where to find
really spicy food in restaurants. This is something of a find.
Americans are getting better, but in general they are a people who
like their food pallid. It is a vicious wimp cycle. How often in
Chinese restaurants have I heard some patron making a big fuss
because he ate one of the little red peppers. Big deal. But it
looks very bad to have a customer making a big fuss in a
restaurant. Most restaurant owners assume that other patrons
always side with any patron who complains. I will not say I never
side with the patron, but I doubt I would often in a Chinese
restaurant. In any case, most owners figure it looks very bad to
have people loudly criticizing the food. Traditional American bad
manners lead to traditional pallid food in restaurants. Pallid
food drives out the spicy, I think that must be the law. In Europe
it is very different. In my experience Europeans would channel
their bad manners into bad manners in queues--I won't go into that
story just now--but Europeans probably would not take a restaurant
owner loudly to task because the food was too spicy. As a result
in Scotland we got better Indian food than I ever had in the United
States. It was probably better than any we got in India. In
general Indian food is great in Britain. In the US it is more
expensive and not as good. It must be because more customers are
willing to tell off the restaurants in the US. So the owners try
to make the food appeal to the lowest common denominator. That
means bland and inoffensive.
So it is generally hard to find restaurants with hot and spicy food
in the US, and even there the highest concentration is in the
Southwest, I would suspect. So Evelyn found this book and was
intrigued by one listing that was near us. There was a restaurant
called Gimpi's in Highlands, 231 Bay Avenue, that featured "The
Wings of Death," chicken wings so spicy that if you finished the
order, it was free. Evelyn saw this and took it as a challenge--
for me. Well sure, I thought, how bad could it be? I am not sure
how I got to be this macho with hot food. I think my father likes
spicy food, but we rarely had it in the house when I was growing
up. My mother thought that it was actually dangerous. I suppose
at that time it was thought that hot food caused ulcers. I guess
it was a logical conclusion to make since hot food certainly told
you when you did have and ulcer, it even would seek them out. And
once I got into hot food I was always afraid that some day it would
give me an ulcer. Never mind that in places like Korea and
Thailand people seem to be healthy with food generally a lot
spicier than it is here. But here the assumption was that hot food
is unhealthy. That has been reversed, of course. These days if
you read in health magazines and food magazines they are positive
on spiciness. It works against heart disease, it works against
cancer, it even helps to PREVENT ulcers. If you are used to hot
food, there are no health risks associated with it that I can find.
Purely the hotness of a dish will not hurt you. Of course The
Wings of Death probably also comes with a dose of fat, but if
balanced by mostly low-fat foods the rest of the day, that probably
is not too bad.
So on a Saturday afternoon we popped the address into Lucent's web
site "Maps on Us" and got instructions on how to find the place.
We drove to where the place should have been and there was an Elk's
Lodge there now. Must have been an old listing. Maybe the wings
were so hot they burned the place down, I thought. I frankly had
mixed emotions about not finding the place. Well, it was not a
complete loss. Atlantic Highlands is known for its seafood
restaurants. So we headed off on Bay Avenue in the direction that
was not a dead end. We drove a way on the street. And what do I
see but a restaurant and bar called Gimpi's. I don't know if there
are two different places where Bay Avenue hits the 230s, or if Maps
on Us is confused, but there it was, big as life. And the sign
showed a man on crutches, apparently Gimp. Not really sensitive in
the politically correct sense. Is this really the place where I
wanted to leave myself at the mercy of the hot food? If truth be
known, no. But the die had been cast and there was no turning
back. I walked into the restaurant ready for my meeting with
Destiny.
I will continue this adventure next week. [-mrl]
===================================================================
3. CONTACT (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: The first contact with an alien race
has a huge impact on society. We see that
impact through the eyes of one woman who
devoted her life to the search for
extraterrestrial life. The film adaptation of
Carl Sagan's CONTACT is in some ways a betrayal
of Sagan's philosophy and has some hefty
revisions to the book. Knowing that I would
like to down-rate CONTACT, but I have to admit
what remains is a substantial and intelligent
film. CONTACT was produced by Sagan and his
wife, Ann Druyan, and that may be why so much
of the film was on-track. While not perfect,
it is the best science fiction film we have
gotten in a good long time. Rating: low +3 (-4
to +4) 8 (0 to 10) Spoiler warning: there are
minor spoilers in the main body and larger ones
in the afterward.
Jodi Foster has obviously gotten a little more sanguine on science
for gifted children since she directed and starred in LITTLE MAN
TATE. That was the film in which she had a budding scientific
prodigy saying "I am working on an experiment involving sulfuric
acid, lasers, and butterflies." In CONTACT she plays one of those
prodigies grown up in a film considerably more positive on science.
This is the story of the career of the fictional Dr. Eleanor
Arroway (Foster) who at an early age was bitten by the astronomy
bug. Her mother died giving birth to her and her father, Ted
(David Morse of THE CROSSING GUARD) instilled in her the love of
science to devote her career to SETI, the search for extra-
terrestrial life. The SETI project turns out to be professional
suicide in the field of astronomy. But she feels compelled to
listen to the sky and to search for signs of intelligent life. The
career choice earns her no respect from her colleagues, and it
makes life a constant set of battles for even minimal funding. Her
chief nemesis and occasional boss David Drumlin (Tom Skerritt),
National Science Advisor to the President, who one way or another
betrays her at every opportunity. A one-time lover and sometimes
adversary is Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey), a failed priest who
becomes a sort of Billy Graham figure. When funding has run out
and Drumlin is forcing her off the Very Large Array, the huge radio
telescope made of twenty-three dish antennae, in the desert of New
Mexico, suddenly she hears a signal that can mean only an
intelligent alien broadcast. This is a scene we have seen recently
in INDEPENDENCE DAY and THE ARRIVAL, but never with the scientific
verisimilitude that we have here. Arroway announces to the world
that contact has been made and nothing is ever the same again.
And now the film takes off and continues as a high pace until the
end. We start with a very believable picture of just what would
happen if such an announcement were made. The National Security
Advisor Michael Kitz (James Woods) struggles to take control of any
information received from the aliens, so does Drumlin, each trying
to get the ear of the President. (My credits list has Sidney
Portier playing the President, but apparently in a last minute
substitution they have William Clinton in the role. The film is,
after all, directed by Robert Zemeckis who had several Presidents
appearing in FORREST GUMP. It is sure to be a controversial piece
of casting, but I think Clinton does a fine job as the President.)
CONTACT is not just a political drama about the after-effects of
contacting alien life in space. This is a long film that keeps
going and going--almost three hours long--and if you have seen the
trailer you will find that the science fiction content is certainly
there if you wait for it. If you have read the book, you may be a
bit disappointed, since there is far more science fiction content
in the original story, but the film does not exactly remain
earthbound either.
The opening sequence demonstrating for us how far into the galaxy
our radio broadcasts have reached is both breath-taking and
scientifically informative. The film is almost worth seeing just
for that sequence. Other scenes are technically impressive, but a
little nonsensical. In one tracking shot the camera leads Arroway
running up a flight of stairs and into a bathroom and in the end we
see we are seeing her in the medicine cabinet mirror and have been
through the scene. There is enough good in CONTACT to make a film
I would give very high marks to, and enough that is irritating for
me to really down-rate it. Generally when that happens I try to
excuse the faults. So while I thought there was much that was
dishonest about CONTACT, overall I would have to give it a low +3
on the -4 to +4 scale.
SPOILER WARNING
Visually you could not ask for a lot more from the film, with one
major exception. While it is not chock full of special effects and
the mattes of the Transporter seen from a distance are not
convincing, the design of the Transporter is just about as
believable as an interstellar transporter could be. The scenes of
the Transporter running were stunning, and the journey was terrific
though perhaps a little derivative of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Then
she plops down at the far end and it is the "Oh, shoot!"
experience. What a failure of imagination! It was like watching
THE BLACK HOLE II.
There is so much that is right with this film and so much that is
wrong, it is hard to know where to begin to evaluate the ideas.
The film I would have liked to see is the one this would have been
if Carl Sagan had not died during the production. I cannot be
positive it would be different, but aspects of this film seem to
run very counter to what I understand as Sagan's philosophy.
Places where the book took chances and had some engaging thoughts
about religion and faith have been reframed to change their
meaning. Certainly false information would never have been added
to the arguments in the film. (The film claims that 95% of the
world's population believes in a Supreme Being. Actually about 21%
of the world is atheist or non- religious and while there may be
some who believe in a Supreme Being among the non-religious, there
are certainly also atheists and agnostics who at least nominally
belong to religions. This also makes the dubious assumption that
Confucians and Shintoists believe in a Supreme Being. The 95%
figure used in the film is wildly inaccurate.)
What I did find surprising was people in the audience getting angry
because the "hero" of the film implied that she was either an
atheist or an agnostic. She never tries to convince anyone to
agree with her, she simply explains why she believes what she does.
Other people punish her for her belief and nobody in the audience
got (audibly) upset about that. Apparently with everything else
this film does, it gets people agitated at its ideas. The novel
actually had a nice piece looking at what could be a proof of the
existence of God, while the film turns into an affirmation of
religious faith in its final scenes. And Arroway complains that
Drumlin tells the people what they want to hear about his views on
religion! [-mrl]
===================================================================
4. MEN IN BLACK (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: MEN IN BLACK is a smart, funny
tabloid-paranoia comedy about the hard-boiled
G-men who keep a lid the government's biggest
secret. That is the "fact" that not just one
but many alien races visit the Earth--mostly
New York City--and use it as an interstellar
border-town and duty-free shop. Humor and
(impressive) special effects rarely mix this
well on the screen. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4), 7
(0 to 10)
Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment has turned a dubious
premise into a delightful science fiction comedy. Taking much the
same premise as TV's DARK SKIES, but handling it very differently,
MEN IN BLACK tells the story of special, super-secret government
agents charged with the responsibility for keeping the secret that
at any given time there are about 1500 space aliens running around
on Earth, natives of hundreds of different inhabited worlds. Most
are friendly, but of course wherever there are lots of aliens there
will always be a few rotten apples who want to vaporize the planet
Earth for the greater glory of someone with a name like Zordalg.
New York cop James Edwards (played by Will Smith) knows nothing of
this, of course. He just knows that something is strange when he
runs down a felon with funny eyes. This feat earns him a candidacy
for some unspecified government job that turns out to be joining
the Men in Black. Once chosen he is re-dubbed Agent J working with
the experienced and cagey Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones).
Ed Solomon's script, based on the comic book by Lowell Cunningham,
is a barrage of funny lines and scenes of just how strange things
can be dealing with aliens. But all that is about the background
for the real plot. The actual story gets very little screentime
comparatively. The film is short as it is at 98 minutes and most
of that time is taken up with the background. The actual story
deals with two alien races fighting over the fate of a galaxy. One
race is represented by an old Jewish man controlled by good-guy
aliens. The other is an evil giant bug who possesses the body of
the redneck Edgar. Vincent D'Onofrio plays the possessed Edgar,
but like most people would be the first time behind the wheel of an
18-wheel truck, the creature just cannot get the hang of the
controls. D'Onofrio is usually a serious actor, as he was in THE
WHOLE WIDE WORLD, but here he shows a real genius for physical
comedy. He manages to walk his human body around, but not one body
part moves naturally. Because so much of the film is taken up with
introduction to the premise this feels like the first film of
series or perhaps a pilot for a film series. And if public
enthusiasm remains high, sequels of some form seem inevitable.
Director Barry Sonnenfeld is best known for directing the two
Addams Family films and GET SHORTY. His Addams Family series was
cut short by the death of Raoul Julia, but he now has another
chance in much the same vein with MEN IN BLACK.
A manic film deserves a manic musical score, and manic scores are a
specialty of Danny Elfman. It combines with good special effects
and Rick Baker makeup and effects. In sum, MEN IN BLACK may well
be one of the best films of this summer's fly-weight class. I give
it a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
5. FACE/OFF (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: Nicholas Cage and John Travolta have
to exchange personalities as well as bodies
while trying to kill each other. Two tired
plot elements show surprising new life in a
thriller that combines the hunt for a brilliant
sociopath with a body switch. The result is a
thriller with at least a little intelligence
behind it. Director John Woo could improve the
film by toning down the action scenes, and he
does not always show the best of taste in his
stylistic choices. But for once his film has
more going for it than action. Certainly
FACE/OFF is a step in the right direction for
Woo. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4), 7 (0 to 10)
When I grew up noodle soup was a lot of broth and only a little bit
of noodles. Then on the market from East Asia came ramen which was
mostly noodles. The marketers of this product acknowledged that
many people bought noodle soup for the noodles so they made that
most of the soup. When I grew up an action film was something like
THE GUNS OF NAVARONE. It had a good story and some action
sequences. Unhappily much of the audience really was watching the
film for the action sequences and the plot just bound them
together, but at least it was there for those who wanted it. The
Hong Kong action film formula delivers action the way ramen
delivers noodles. It gives you more action than plot. Part of the
formula is to turn the drama to melodrama. Melodrama allows for
more dramatic moments in a shorter space of time, leaving more time
to devote to action sequences. Then the action sequences go off
like a strings of firecrackers on Chinese New Year. Turning the
story to melodrama and increasing the pace of the fireworks
destroys much of the credibility of a film, but it gives the
audience what it wants. That is the Hong Kong action film formula
and one of its leading proponents is John Woo. But Woo has been
lured to Hollywood and he has had to compromise his style a bit.
He has toned down the melodrama making for a longer story to tell.
He has cut down the proportion of action scenes while lengthening
the film. FACE/OFF is a long film at 138 minutes, it spends less
time with action sequences than his earlier films, but he uses the
extra time to tell a more dramatically satisfying story with a more
engaging premise.
In action films we have had more than our share of films of law
agents stalking psychopathic killers. And a few seasons back we
also had in a short time a lot of films with people switching
bodies and having to live as the other person. Combining the two
ideas does not sound like a promising idea, but it makes for a much
more interesting piece dramatically than most of Woo's films.
Castor and Pollux Troy (played respectively by Nicholas Cage and
Alessandro Nivola) are brother sociopaths who have little in common
with their namesakes, the Dioscuri who accompanied Jason on his
quest for the Golden Fleece. Castor is a super- extrovert (and
obnoxious) criminal genius. Six years earlier he nearly killed FBI
agent Sean Archer (John Travolta) and did kill Archer's young son.
The ruthless and narcissistic killer has been pitted against stiff
and introverted FBI agent for several years, and finally Archer
manages to kill Castor Troy. However, the government knows that
Castor and Pollux have set a bomb to destroy Los Angeles and Pollux
refuses to talk. Then Archer finds out that Castor is still alive,
albeit comatose, and that a new process can transform Archer to
look like Castor. It is suggested that Archer become Castor and
perhaps trick information from Pollux Troy. Of course Castor wakes
from his coma, finds out what has happened and forces the doctors
to transform him to look like Archer. The logic (or lack of logic)
in this scene is one of the low-points of the film. But to fool
people Castor and Archer each has to take on the other's
mannerisms. The introvert must force himself to be an extrovert,
the extrovert ... well that would be telling. Each must get
involved with the family or friends of the other, and gets a better
understanding of the enemy. Loyalties become confused. Many
things are happening at different levels in this film and Woo
manages to keep things together.
John Woo's anything goes Hong Kong style just does not really work
all the time. There is a somewhat questionable sequence in with a
child's home is shot up and a child is very nearly killed all done
to the tune of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The scene may well
have been inspired by the brilliant "Danny Boy" sequence in
MILLER'S CROSSING, but here it is too easy to construe it as making
light of child endangerment. It indicates that Woo, like some of
his characters, is not always in full control of his talents. And
in this scene, like most of Woo's action scenes, the violence is
turned up to a degree far beyond any realism and all subtlety is
lost. When Woo is finished with a set for one of his action scenes
it is pretty well shredded. Other places he has more control such
as well-choreographed sequence in which FBI agents try to stop a
plane from taking off. The opening sequence is a nightmarish
flashback showing a good deal of atmosphere.
Woo goes neither for drama nor his usual melodrama, but something
somewhere in between. He has good actors in Travolta and Cage and
more than his other films he needs them as each goes through layers
of the others personality. Joan Allen plays Archer's wife, for
once an intelligently drawn character. Allen is a two-time Oscar
nominee for her roles in THE CRUCIBLE and as Pat Nixon in NIXON.
In a role that other filmmakers might have minimized, she holds her
own. Gina Gershon also plays well in a sympathetic role as a close
friend of Castor.
John Woo is showing signs of maturing as a filmmaker. While he
still is a fan a large scale destruction scenes, he has shown he
can make a film with a little more to it. I rate this film a +2 on
the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
6. ULEE'S GOLD (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: A Florida beekeeper foils two petty
hoods while he saves his family. This same plot
could have been a simple--even a bad--crime
film. What makes this better than simple cable
fare are the deep emotional resonance, the
textured filmmaking, and the fine performances.
This is a moving story of what a single man can
accomplish. Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4) 7 (0 to
10)
New York Critics: 18 positive, 0 negative, 4
mixed
Ulysses "Ulee" Jackson (played by Peter Fonda) is a beekeeper from
a small, sweaty town in the Florida panhandle. He lives with his
two granddaughters (Vanessa Zima and Jessica Biel) in what in a
nicer neighborhood would be called a "dysfunctional" family. The
older granddaughter is a little wild and does not have a lot of
respect for her grandfather. Ulee's son-in-law Jimmy (Tom Wood) is
in the penitentiary for robbing an armored car. And his daughter-
in-law Helen has run off to have a good time, leaving her two
daughters to Ulee. Hurt by the most of the people he loved, Ulee
has withdrawn into himself emotionally. He relies on nobody and
nobody can let him down. He has trained his family to never ask
the help of outsiders. Above all he maintains his integrity and
his dignity, even at the expense of a backache or two or not
meeting his honey production goals.
Then Jimmy gets word from his two partners in the robbery, still
free, that they have Helen in Orlando, high on drugs, and they want
someone to take her off their hands. When Ulee comes to pick her
up, they make clear how they have used her and at the same time
tell Ulee that they want the $100,000 of bank money from the
robbery that they just found out that Jimmy had and hid from them
and the police. Ulee brings home Helen, but finds that she is too
much to handle in drug withdrawal and he is forced to ask help of
the nurse who rents from Ulee a house across the street from his
house. Ulee wants as little help as he can manage, but it is the
time of year he needs to give a lot of attention to his business of
producing honey.
Peter Fonda has never been the most expressive of actors, but here
it works to his advantage playing a man who has retreated into his
shell and divorced himself from his emotions. This is being called
the best role of Fonda's career, but it may be just a matter of
calling for the type of non-emotive acting that Fonda is best at.
The entire cast does well with Steven Flynn and Dewey Weber
genuinely detestable as Jimmy's two slimy partners.
The film DEAD CALM would have been a standard stalker if it had not
included some fascinating scenes of how Sam Neill, as a nautical
man, saves a foundering yacht. Just seeing the processes used by
an expert makes for some good filmmaking. Though ULEE'S GOLD does
not take full advantage some of the most interesting scenes of the
film show how Ulee maintains the hives and the discussions of
rotating the hives and the various grades of honey. In addition
these scenes characterize Ulee as a careful and contentious man who
does things a step at a time. His care to repair the hives and to
return the bees that have strayed makes a metaphor for Ulee's care
for his home. Later his behavior around the bees is his guide for
how to handle the two hoodlums who threaten his family.
Unfortunately only in certain scenes is it clear what Fonda is
doing with the hives. This is not a documentary on beekeeping, but
it would not have taken a lot of effort to make the task a little
more comprehensible. Though even as it is it does engage the
viewer.
Victor Nunez tells a simple powerful story of emotional depth. I
rate it a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
7. BRASSED OFF (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: This film is by turns a comedy, a
serious drama, and an anti-Tory political
tract. But Mark Herman who wrote and directed
certainly knows how to create characters in
whom the audience can place an emotional
investment. This film about a century-old
brass band in a dying Yorkshire mining town is
predictable but has a lot of affecting human
drama. Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4) 7 (0 to 10)
New York Critics: 5 positive, 4 negative, 4
mixed
Since the 1950s the British have certainly known how to make modest
but affecting films in ways that American filmmakers rarely
attempt. Some simple comedies from the post-war era gave us
eloquent and loving pictures of British village life still
memorable today. That tradition is strong in BRASSED OFF, but
mostly in the first half of the film. Director/writer Mark Herman
hooks the audience with a light comic view of the mining village of
Grimely, but increasingly the replaces the comedy with serious
drama. We see the village having its most difficult times with the
pit closings of the Margaret Thatcher administration. Finally,
with the viewer hooked and caring about the characters, the film
gets in its angry speech about the policy of pit closings of
Thatcher's Tory party. Not that it is a total surprise with the
opening of the film making some angry remarks about closing mines
to replace with nuclear power plants.
The heart of the Yorkshire town of Grimely is its colliery. ('Ere.
of Grimely--well, most of it anyway--is the Grimely Colliery Brass
Band. The band has been around for a hundred years. But these are
hard times for Grimely. The company looks like it might close the
colliery and if there really is a pit closing, the whole town might
just as well dry up and blow away. Already there are those in the
band who are so depressed about what is happening to the town that
they are ready to quit the band. Band leader Danny (Pete
Postlethwaite, the currently best thing about THE LOST WORLD:
JURASSIC PARK) cannot believe that people in the town will let the
band die, even if the mine goes under. Just as the band is
starting to founder, new life is breathed into it by a new member.
Gloria (the radiant Tara Fitzgerald), granddaughter of a former
great band member, returns to the town of her birth with her
grandfather's flugelhorn. The first woman ever in the Grimely
Colliery Brass Band plays the flugelhorn as well as her grandfather
did. Suddenly the band starts looking and sounding better to the
band members. While the future of the town is souring, the men are
distracted for a few hours a week by music and a little flirting.
And of course some of the wives are jealous. But things grow
grimmer in Grimely as the company offers a job buyout. While some
band members are sacrificing food for music, most of the town is
looking at whether they want to mortgage the future of the town in
the buyout or hope the mines are not closed. Mark Herman has a
feel for the humanity of the people, no doubt based on his youth in
Yorkshire.
Pete Postlethwaite is one of the British actors who does a great
job and nobody seems to make much of a fuss about. He had major
roles in films such as IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, or bit parts in
films such as THE USUAL SUSPECTS. His bicycle-riding band leader
in denial about how serious the town's problems are is entirely
different from roles he has done before. Tara Fitzgerald is a
decent actress, and though I have not seen her in any really
demanding roles, she is certainly a joy to watch. Ewan McGregor,
like Postlethwaite, is also in two current films, this and THE
PILLOW BOOK. And with his Scottish name it goes without saying
that he was in TRAINSPOTTING. Veteran character actor Jim Carter
(THE ADVOCATE, BLACK BEAUTY, and RICHARD III), looking like a
heavy-set Leonard Rossiter, usually can be counted on for a bit a
color.
Americans will be at a slight disadvantage in seeing BRASSED OFF.
They will be informed at the outset what a colliery is, but the
Yorkshire accent takes a little getting used to. What very likely
were some funny lines will go past viewers not quick enough to pick
up what is said. Curiously the anti-Tory sentiments may hit home
from similarities in policy between the Conservative Tories and the
Republican Party. But the political arguments will lose a little
impact since coal-mining is shown to be a dangerous profession
which shortens lives. The viewer may decide that it is just as
well that the next generation is saved from going into the pits and
instead is forced to find other work.
Not surprisingly, the score by Trevor Jones is big and brassy with
some nice brass renditions of popular light classical themes. The
score is played by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band who also supplied
extras for the story's band. No doubt Grimely is based in no small
part on Grimethorpe. This is a film that has more than a few
moving moments and it worth looking for. There is more to this
film than the trailers would lead one to think. I rate it a low +2
on the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
Mark Leeper
MT 3E-433 732-957-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
The allurement that women hold out to men is
precisely the allurement that Cape Hatteras holds
out to sailors; they are enormously dangerous and
hence enormously fascinating.
-- H. L. Mencken