Armchair Commentary

Pistol Camera - "X The Unheard Music" and Other Great Punk Documentaries

On March 13, MVD will release a new edition of the 1986 documentary The Unheard Music, which profiled the seminal Los Angeles punk band X. The new "Silver Anniversary Edition" disc, which commemorates the quarter-century since the film's original release, offers a new transfer and 5.1 surround sound mix, as well as new interviews with founding members Exene Cervenka and John Doe along with outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage. 

More than just a snapshot of the L.A. underground music scene in the 1980s, The Unheard Music is just one of a handful of documentary features that attempted to chronicle the development of punk - both music and lifestyle - during its seminal years in the 1970s and 1980s outside of the frequently uninformed coverage of the mainstream media. Following are 10 great punk docs that preserve the sound and passion of the period. 

Sadly, such exceptional efforts as Lech Kowalski's D.O.A.: A Rite of Passage (1980) and Penelope Spheeris' The Decline of Western Civilization (1981) and The Decline of Western Civilization III (1998) are excluded from this list, as all are, as of this post, unavailable in legal DVD releases.

Urgh! A Music War (1982) The music does the talking in this who's who of punk and New Wave in concert. Performances by major players like the Police, Dead Kennedys, X, DEVO, Go-Gos, Cramps, XTC, Pere Ubu and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts are paired with footnote figures like Magazine, Surf Punks and Skafish, which (intentionally or not) underscores the democratic intent of the scene. The film's showstopper/curio piece is performance artist Klaus Nomi, whose soaring falsetto and alien presence were later detailed in the 2004 doc The Nomi Song.

Another State of Mind (1984) This harrowing account of Social Distortion and Youth Brigade's tour through Canada and the U.S. in 1982, should be required viewing for all aspiring punk musicians. Not only does it detail the highs and lows of live performances, from dedicated fans to dilapidated vans and unscrupulous club owners (Youth Brigade drummer Mark Stern displays a fistful of penny rolls offered in payment for a San Francisco show), but also the hazards inherent to playing music outside the mainstream, from disdain to threats of arrest and outright violence. While aspects of punk has gained some respect in 21st century society, the hardships faced by the bands here, which are joined by Ian MacKaye and Minor Threat near the end of the film, are still a reality in corners of the world, making this cautionary tale still relevant after nearly three decades. 

The Clash - Westway to the World (2000) / Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten (2007) The UK's mighty Clash and its singer and chief lyricist, Joe Strummer, are paid proper respect in these two retrospective features. Director Don (The Punk Rock Movie, Punk: Attitude) Letts' Grammy-winning Westway to the World is a capable introduction to the band's history via footage from their heyday (1977-1982) and interviews with its members post-breakup, while Julien Temple's The Future is Unwritten digs deeper to present a warts-and-all bio on Strummer, with detailed focus on his life pre- and post-Clash.

The Filth and the Fury: A Sex Pistols Film (2000) Julien Temple attempts to place the Sex Pistols into a context far removed from the hysteria and shock that erupted during their emergence in late '70s Britain. The result, which combines period footage with new interviews with the surviving members and a dizzying array of visual non sequiters, is neither a canonization nor a dismissal of the Pistols, but rather an effort to preserve the righteous indignation of their music in the face of a country and culture in mid-collapse, which draws uncomfortable parallels to the present-day global economic situation.

Instrument: Ten Years with the Band Fugazi (2001) An exhaustive overview of Ian Mackaye's highly influential, post-Minor Threat outfit Fugazi, this two-hour-plus effort by Jem Cohen is a collection of live performances from the band's lengthy history along with interviews that detail the development of their fan-oriented ethics (low ticket prices, all-ages shows, label allegiance). Those looking for a historical document may be thwarted by the film's loose construction, but fans will be rapturous over the wealth of live material spanning Fugazi's 16-year history.

End of the Century - The Story of the Ramones (2003) The history of the Ramones, from their status as rock and roll's saviors in the early '70s to their fractious, messy end in 1996, has been detailed in countless books, magazine articles and films, but this long-gestating project, launched in 1994 and completed nearly a decade later, details both the joyful and ugly aspects of their myth in the words of the band members themselves. What results is a honest depiction of the Ramones as history makers who ignited the conflagration of punk rock for the generations that followed, but ultimately were themselves unable to keep warm by it.

New York Doll (2005) A bittersweet story of downfall and redemption, this award-winning feature details the life of Arthur "Killer" Kane, bassist for the glam-punk pioneers the New York Dolls, who endured decades of substance abuse and emotional turmoil before finding solace in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. When a opportunity to play with his former bandmates arises in 2004, the fragile Kane must weigh his own self-preservation against a chance to reclaim his legacy. Alternately enthraling and heartbreaking, New York Doll is a moving testimony to the perils of rock and roll, as well as its power to reinvent and revive.

We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen (2006) San Pedro's beloved and fiercely independent Minutemen, who railed against political injustice in their tightly wound blend of punk, jazz and roots rock, receive a loving tribute in this recollection about their under-the-radar but potent influence on alternative music. The fraternal relationship between singer D. Boon and bassist Mike Watt - now an elder statesman of the indie scene - and their attempt to make intelligent, passionate music in the grisly pop/rock scene of the early '80s are detailed in interviews with Watt, drummer George Hurley, and an all-star list of punk admirers, from Henry Rollins and Flea to critic Richard Meltzer and future Watt cohorts Joe Baiza, Nels Cline and Ed Crawford (fIREHOSE).

American Hardcore - The History of Punk Rock 1980-1986 (2006) Summing up punk rock in a single film is a daunting prospect that invariably leaves one or more factions of fans feeling slighted, and both this documentary, inspired by Steven Blush's book of the same name, and the following pictures, have earned brickbats for their omissions (here, it's the Dead Kennedys and Husker Du, undoubtedly for legal reasons). But for its wealth of interviews and vintage clips, American Hardcore is a worthwhile addition to any punk aficionado's collection. 

Punk's Not Dead (2008) and Punk: Attitude (2005) Both features have their merits, with Don Letts' Punk: Attitude offering a historical perspective via interviews with veteran performers, and Punk's Not Dead taking the genre's pulse in the 21st century. Again, neither presents the Compleat Punk Picture, but serve as competent and often invigorating elements of a vast, unruly and still-vibrant punk portrait.

Also worth seeing: Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies (1994), Todd Phillips' profile of the doomed, nihilist rocker, who took punk's transgressive qualities to self-destructive lengths; Afro-Punk (2005), which examines issues of race within the punk community, with performances by and interviews with black and interracial acts like Fishbone, TV on the Radio and 24-7 Spyz; The Gits (2008), a moving look at the life of the Seattle band and their frontwoman, Mia Zapata, whose 1993 murder cut short a promising career; and Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam (2009), which examines the rise of punk culture among Islamic youth in both the U.S. and abroad. -- Paul Gaita

The Terrible Eleven of 2011: The Year's Best in Horror DVDs

Following is a list of notable horror-related DVD and Blu-ray releases from 2011. A "best" list for horror can be a tricky proposition, given the spectrum of styles and degrees of intensity in the genre. Classic chiller fans may not care a whit about the latest gut-spiller, while gore aficionados may roll their eyes at a Depression Era spookshow. But the following eleven titles showcased here stood out, and therefore, were the best in our opinion, because they met two important criteria: they were distinguished by the quality of their stories and/or direction, whether stylish, unrelenting or inventive, and (most importantly) they were scary.

Here's our alarming eleven, in no particular order:

-- Island of Lost Souls Director Erle C. Kenton's outrageous 1933 adaptation of H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau makes its long-over DVD debut with this deluxe presentation from Criterion. Seventy years have not dampened the film's queasy blend of pre-Code perversity and sadism in the name of Science, as embodied by Charles Laughton as a supremely arch Moreau, as well as Kathleen Burke's hot-blooded Panther Girl and Bela Lugosi's tormented Sayer of the Law. Extras include interviews with director John Landis, makeup legend Rick Baker and Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale of Devo, whose "de-evolution" manifesto was influenced by the film. An absolute essential for horror fans of all ages and preferences.

I Have Seen the Future (And It Looks Terrible): 10 Movie Dystopias Before "In Time"

Director Andrew Niccol's In Time, which opened on October 28, envisions a future in which the world's population has been genetically engineered to stop aging when they reach their 25th year. There is, of course, a catch: they are also "programmed" to die at age 26, but can stave off the inevitable by working for minutes to add to their lifespan. This combination of technological heaven and biological hell is the latest in a long line of dystopias on film, depicting worlds where the promise of a future filled with wonder has been replaced by despair, disarray and the human race teetering on the brink of demise. 

Following are ten more memorable visions, listed in chronological order, of the future gone wrong on film. It is by no means a comprehensive list, but merely a representative sampling of the subgenre.

Metropolis (1927) Director Fritz Lang's seminal science fiction film examines the schism between the working class and the managerial elite in this blend of Expressionism and Marxism that also includes one of the screen's first robots, a sleek, metallic automaton used to sow dissent among the rebelling workers. 

Alphaville (1965) Jean-Luc Godard's surreal adventure sends secret agent Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) to the title city, an Orwellian technocratic dictatorship overseen by the super-computer Alpha 60, which has forbidden emotion in favor of mindless obedience.

Rock-Em Sock-Em: 10 Tough Movie Robots Before "Real Steel"

Sure, robots in the movies can be helpful, like C-3P0 or Robby the Robot, or coldly malevolent, like the Daleks. But can they take a punch? That question is answered in Real Steel, a science fiction-action hybrid opening October 7 with Hugh Jackman as a washed-up pug turned promoter of a robot boxer. Based on Richard Matheson's short story "Steel" (which which was previously adapted for the fifth season of The Twilight Zone in 1963),Real Steel reminds us that several memorable movie robots have brought the brawn along with the binary code in prior years.

For the purposes of this list, we're expanding the defintion of the word "robot" to include androids (machines designed to resemble humans) and cyborgs (robots with both biological and mechanical elements). We're also limiting our list to cinematic robots, so you won't find Cylons, Cybermen or the Six Million Dollar Man here (that's another list altogether).

In chronological order:

- Gort, The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) Actor Lock Martin, who stood at 7' 1" (though other sources say 7'7") left his job as the doorman at Grauman's Chinese Theater to play the 8-foot mechanical enforcer for alien visitor Klaatu (Michael Rennie) in Robert Wise's science fiction classic. When a trigger-happy GI accidentally wings Klaatu during his impromptu visit to Washington, D.C., Gort impassionately disintegrates the military's might, and nearly comes close to wiping out humanity as a whole until Patricia Neal utters the enduring phrase "Klaatu barada nikto." 

Gear Jammers and Night Riders: 10 Great Car Chase Movies Before "Drive"

With its blend of high-octane car action and an indie-friendly cast that includes Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston and Ron Perlman, the thriller Drive, which opens September 16, appears to pay homage to the great auto-oriented action and suspense films of the 1970s, where top actors like Steve McQueen, Gene Hackman and Peter Fonda vented their frustration over the decade's turmoil from behind the wheel of some heavy-duty horsepower. No Michael Bay histrionics or Fast and Furious drift here - just four wheels, an open road and plenty of attitude.

Following are some of the best and most ballsy car chase films from that decade, as well as a few from the 1980s and 1990s that took their MPH to heart.

Bullitt (1968) Steve McQueen's Inspector Frank Bullitt and his '68 V8 Ford Mustang are pursued by a 440 Dodge Charger through San Francisco's highly vertical Mission District in the landmark 9-minute chase scene from Peter Yates' police thriller. McQueen did about 10% of his own driving in the film, leaving the rest to veteran stunt drivers Bud Ekins (who executed McQueen's barbed wire fence jump in The Great Escape, 1963) and McQueen's usual stunt double, Loren James. The Bullitt Mustang was revived by Ford in 2008 to celebrate the film's 40th anniversary.

The French Connection (1971) Gene Hackman's tough cop Popeye Doyle pits his 1971 Pontiac Le Mans against New York's BMT West Line train in a frenzied attempt to stop hitman Marcel Bozzuffi after a botched attempt on Doyle's life. An astonishing display of cinematic bravura, director William Friedkin puts the viewer in the driver's seat (well, the back seat, where he shot over stunt driver Bill Hickman's shoulder while wrapped in a mattress for protection) or on the Pontiac's front bumper to provide one of the movies' greatest adrenaline rushes.

The Icky Shuffle: Contagion Movies

Gesundheit. With Steven Soderbergh’s brilliantly clinical, scarily plausible all-star disaster movie Contagion hitting screens, here’s a few notable films which also explore the fertile topic of quarantines and near-invisible invaders. Does … does anybody else feel warm?

Panic in the Streets (1950) Q: What’s scarier than having an unknowing carrier of bubonic plague on the loose in New Orleans? A: When said carrier is played by a huffing, puffing Jack Palance. Elia Kazan’s heavily expressionistic film noir (which features Richard Widmark in a too-rare heroic role) piles on the paranoia, especially when zooming in on the increasingly manic Palance, spreading potential death with every musk-ox exhalation.

Shivers (1976) There’s a fear of infection at work in most horror stories (Vampires, check; Werewolves, check; Zombies, big time check). While George A. Romero’s Dead saga, the 28 Days Later series, and The Stand all have their considerable virtues, no filmmaker has ever played with the idea as boldly as David Cronenberg, whose first two movies are brilliantly grody metaphors about catching a bug.  Shot entirely in a claustrophobic high rise, Shivers follows the outbreak of a group of horrid slug-things whose bite releases the inner deviant in their victims. Working on an extremely low budget, Cronenberg takes the concept of viral horror and absolutely runs with it, leaving no queasy stone unturned.  (To quote Stephen King from his awed appreciation in Danse Macabre, “[the film] is about sexual promiscuity on one level; on another level it’s asking you how you’d like to have a leech jump out of a letter slot and latch itself onto your face. These are not the same levels of unease at all.”) Nowhere is the film more effective than in its bizarre finale, which somehow plays as both worst case scenario and happy ending. 1977’s follow-up Rabid, in which Marilyn Chambers develops a communicable hankering for human blood following an experimental surgery, is a slightly more conventional movie, although the director still goes to degrees where few others dare to tread. After watching a surgeon start foaming at the mouth in mid-operation, never leaving the house again feels like a valid option.

Carriers (2009) A small group of survivors attempt to outdrive a widening plague zone, in this surprisingly vital, unstintingly tough-minded end of the world virus movie, with a pre-Trek Chris Pine unafraid to ugly it up in the lead role. The lack of funds occasionally shows, but in its unpretentious B-movie miserablism, it works like gangbusters.

Black Death (2011) In which a bunch of church-commissioned Medieval witch hunters (led by Sean Bean) stumble across a community mysteriously free of the plague. A cult movie in the making, director Christopher Smith’s fantastically atmospheric film explores the horrors of unexplained sickness, as well as the extreme steps taken by some to escape the taint.

Outbreak (1995) Released during the height of Ebola fears, Wolfgang Petersen’s mild yet effective monkey virus thriller manages to hit some of the same nerves that Contagion pings so expertly. The novelty of Dustin Hoffman as an action hero aside, this makes the list mainly for the awesomely overt scene where the plague is first spread … in a movie theater. William Castle would have given a high-five.

So, what movies make you reach for the Purell? --Andrew Wright

 

Made-for-TV Terrors: The ORIGINAL "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" and other '70s Small Screen Shockers

 On October 10, 1973, TV audiences who tuned to ABC were transfixed by a hair-raising supernatural thriller about a young newlywed (Kim Darby, True Grit) plagued by unseen fores in her new home. The feature, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, earned a reputation as one of the most terrifying productions ever made for television, and had a profound effect on many that saw it in the four decades after its initial network broadcast - including director Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy), who recently produced a big-screen remake, starring Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce, that opens on August 26. 

Del Toro's remake serves as a great reminder that the 1970s were an exceptional period for horror features on the small screen. The success of such critically acclaimed and highly rated efforts as Steven Spielberg's Duel (1971), Dan Curtis' The Night Stalker (1972) and Dark, directed by John Newland (of One Step Beyond fame) paved the way for dozens of genre titles, some of which compared favorably to the Hollywood releases of the period. Following are 10 of the best '70s-era TV-movie horror films, all available on DVD, and all providing the perfect degree of chills for hot summer viewing. It should be mentioned that the original Don't Be Afraid of the Dark has also been issued in a newly remastered special edition disc.

Note: the omission of some outstanding TV-movie terror titles, including Steven Spielberg's Something Evil (1972), A Cold Night's Death (1972) and the Gene Roddenberry-produced Spectre (1973)- both starring the late Robert Culp - and Curtis Harrington's The Dead Don't Die, is due to their unavailability on legitimate DVD.

Prince of Darkness: The Best of Bela Lugosi on DVD

In the half-century that has passed since Bela Lugosi's death on August 16, 1956, the Hungarian-born actor has lost little of his lustre as one of Hollywood's most enduring horror film icons. He remains best known for his elegant and smoulderingly sensual Count in Tod Browning's Dracula (1931), a performance that not only presaged such erotically charged screen vampires as Christopher Lee, Frank Langella and even Robert Pattinson, but has become part of the pop culture lexicon; without Lugosi, there are none of the aforementioned actors, but also no Bobby "Boris" Pickett ("Monster Mash"), no Count von Count on Sesame Street, even no Count Chocula on your breakfast table, not to mention Martin Landau's Oscar-winning turn as (a highly fictionalized) Lugosi in Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994) and the legions of comic imitators, cartoon depictions, pop songs and even postage stamps that traded on his distinctive look, accent and delivery.

Like his frequent on-screen rival, Boris Karloff, Lugosi is part of our collective consciousness as filmgoers. His image immediately invokes a stately, charming evil, the kind of which is largely absent from modern horror films. That image surpasses the typecasting that plagued Lugosi in life and the grisly final chapter of his career with Ed Wood and Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959). On the 55th anniverary of Lugosi's death, we take a look at the films that best summon that image, and have preserved his legacy for generations of fans. 

1. Dracula (1931) Lugosi had played the Count in the 1927 Broadway production of Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston's stage play, which served as the basis for the film, but had to lobby to win the role in the film; producer Carl Laemmle, Jr. wanted Lon Chaney for Dracula, and considered numerous other actors, including Paul Muni, before settling on Lugosi. The result was instant stardom for the actor, whose deliberate speech patterns ("I never drink... wine") and mesmerizing gaze have passed into movie legend. Though widely identified as Dracula, he would play the role in only two subsequent films, the 1933 short Hollywood on Parade and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), though he played other unrelated characters in Mark of the Vampire (1935) and Return of the Vampire (1944).

Ivan Reitman on the Lessons of Ghostbusters, the Upcoming Sequel (and ... Ashton Kutcher?)

Ivan Reitman has made a lot of terrific movies: Meatballs, Stripes, Kindergarten Cop, No Strings Attached. But there’s one that’s special. One that’s helped define what a blockbuster comedy is, and brought joy to millions. That movie is Ghostbusters. “I like to think it did something that hasn’t been seen before – that combination of humor with a fairly original story, original characters, a mix of genres,” said Reitman, who recently judged the Amazon Studios Best Comedy Script contest. “It’s kind of a scary film and kind of a funny film. And a film of a scale that had not been attempted before that I can think of, and it really set this whole new genre.”

There are lessons in Ghostbusters for every screenwriter, and the most important one is: Don’t try to make another Ghostbusters. For one, Reitman himself is on the case (more on Ghostbusters 3 in a bit). But more importantly, the thing Reitman most wants screenwriters to be is authentic. Don’t try to make the movie or write the script that you think someone wants you to write. More specifically, he added: “Think about: What part of my own experience is unique to me? What do I have genuine and original insight into what is my own experience that I can ascribe and impart in my own way that has not been seen before?”

Some might say that with a cast that included Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis and Annie Potts, it would be hard to go wrong. And Reitman wouldn’t disagree. “Sometimes an inspirational performance can take a script out of failure,” he said.  “But it’s very hard to make a bad script a lot better. I’d much rather start with a better script.” He had it with the first Ghostbusters. And the second? “There’s lots of funny stuff in the second Ghostbusters, but we didn’t quite get the story right, particularly the threat,” he said. “The actors were interesting, but I thought the plot was less than stellar in comparison to the first one, so there was a certain level of disappointment. Though taken on its own, it was a good movie.”

Ghostbusters 2 came out in 1989, five years after the original. And Ghostbusters 3? Coming next year, reportedly. “I think it’s going to happen,” Reitman said. “We really all want it to happen. Though I’m not sure about Bill. I think he’s gone to a place in his performance career that it’s not as important to him as it may be with others.”

Reitman won’t discuss the specifics of the plot, but he will acknowledge the pressure. “It’s an interesting pressure. People do sequels all the time now, and there doesn’t seem to be quite as much pressure on those screenplays as there is for a Ghostbusters movie. There’s such a love for the original film that it has placed almost a unique weight on it.” Fortunately, he said, they have a “very good” screenplay ready (by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, who wrote Bad Teacher).

Speaking of pressure, Reitman is confident that Ashton Kutcher, his leading man in No Strings Attached, can handle what awaits when he leads one of TV’s hottest comedies, Two and a Half Men, into its post-Charlie Sheen era this fall. “Ashton is undervalued as an actor,” Reitman said. “He’s thought of as a good looking boy … but he’s a really good, subtle actor.” And funny. And Reitman would know.

-- Studios Steph

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Trailer Park: "Contagion," "The Thing," "John Carter"

While the internet breathlessly waits for a legit version of The Dark Knight Rises teaser (in which, according to reports, Tom Hardy’s back can briefly be glimpsed), a number of other intriguing trailers have made a pre-Comicon appearance. Start planning your sick days now.

Contagion (dir. by Steven Soderbergh): As distinctly '70s as the Pet Rock or Stretch Armstrong, the disaster movie cycle derived no small amount of guiltless fun from an iron-clad formula: Large-scale bloodless apocalypse at the end of the first reel, followed by a series of over-the-hill, easily recognizable actors biting it in increasingly baroque fashion. (Personal favorite: Henry Fonda shooting himself up with giant killer bee venom—in the name of science!—in The Swarm.) Steven Soderbergh’s all-star viral thriller, however, looks like it veers far, far away from Irwin Allen’s turf, with the cheesy fun of watching, say, Robert Wagner turning into a tux-clad fajita replaced by powerhouse acting and a no-nonsense attitude. While spoiler-hounds may get up in arms about the revealed fates of some of the actors in this trailer, it’s not looking like anyone gets away clean here. (September 9th)

 

The Thing (dir. by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.): Horror fans, meanwhile, can be forgiven for feeling a little queasy about the existence of this prequel to John Carpenter’s 1981 somberly gloppy classic, which focuses on the events at an alien-infested Norwegian camp before Kurt Russell and his massive sombrero make the scene. Thankfully, this trailer looks like the filmmakers have made a genuine effort to replicate Carpenter’s doomy vibe (dig the Ennio Morricone soundtrack lift at the end), while sticking to the practical effects that made the original such a splatter milestone. (That said, the subtle CGI bit involving a guy’s face definitely works.) Keep watching the skies. (October 14th)

 

John Carter (dir. by Andrew Stanton): The first live-action film from Pixar Grand Poobah Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, WALL-E) is an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ pulp milestone A Princess of Mars. Not that you’d be able to guess the Mars part from this rather opaque trailer, though, which tones down the material’s more baroque elements-–shouldn’t the sand be colored red, at least?--in favor of Conan-style throwdowns.  Still, the director’s track record and the presence of a ridiculously talented supporting cast (including Bryan Cranston, Willem Dafoe, and Samantha Morton) suggest that there may be more magic here than meets the eye. And, hey, how about that song, huh? (March 9th, 2012)