Extraordinarily Simple!

Marty (1955)

Director: Dilbert Mann

https://boredanddangerousblog.wordpress.com/
2016/05/24/movie-review-marty-1955/

Ernest Borgnine was a regular fixture during my terrestrial TV days growing up. He often played the villain in numerous Western films and portrayed a tough soldier in combat movies. The last I recall watching him, he was a smiling, gap-toothed, confident character in ‘Airwolf’.

The 1950s saw Borgnine thrive in Hollywood; however, his opportunities to appear as a leading man sadly diminished as he began to gain weight in the middle and lose it at the top. Then came the audition for ‘Marty’, and he was cast as the hero. 

The 1950s also witnessed movie moguls amassing fortunes from their productions. Simultaneously, tax authorities were hot on their trail, occasionally imposing charges on megastars of up to 94% if they earned more than $ 200,000. Consequently, many looked for loopholes to avoid taxes. Some worked less, while others established shell companies for dubious ventures. 

Burt Lancaster, a self-made man, had precisely that on his mind when he ventured alongside his agent, Harold Hect, to adapt a TV play into a feature film. No one was optimistic that such a monochrome endeavour with a mundane story about an elderly man searching for a wife would make an impact at the box office. This was during a period when studios were thriving with their extravagant films featuring biblical narratives, lavish sets, and vibrant, colourful scenes. 

Lancaster and Hect wanted the film to fail. They did not want it completed; rather, they sought to write it off as a loss.

 

However, the tax authorities were shrewder. They ruled that films must be finished and screened at least once to be considered a failure. Consequently, the producers had no option but to show it in a single cinema in New York with very little publicity. 

The film, largely shot outdoors around New York, attracted the local populace to the cinema. Before long, people were queuing down the block for tickets. Someone decided to send it to Cannes as America’s representative. Hollywood had never won anything at Cannes prior to that. Lo and behold, Marty won the 1955 Palme d’Or, and the rest is history. At the Oscars, it went on to win four Academy Awards, including one for Ernest Borgnine. 

 

Marty became extraordinary due to its simplicity. The storyline resonated with the times when turning 29 made a woman an old maid, a 35-year-old man old, and family values were a high priority. The conversations were mundane and self-deprecating, intensifying the emotional depth of the characters and drawing us closer to their daily lives than in the mid-1950s.

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A time to reflect?

The Bishop's Wife (1947)
Director: Henry Koster

Even though 'It's A Wonderful World' (1946) may be hailed as the best Christmas movie of all time, the message behind 'The Bishop's Wife' is the same. Christmas is a time of giving (to the needy) and caring, and it is a time for peace on Earth. 'The Bishop's Wife' is nowhere listed as even the top thirty of X'mas films.

Christmas is in the air, but there is no peace in the life of Bishop Henry Brougham. The stress of getting funds to build a new cathedral is proving too much. He neglects his parish, his wife and daughter. The Bishop asks for God's guidance, and God sends him an angel to sort things out. In the neighbourhood, there is also a learned professor who has been procrastinating on his book writing. A wealthy widow is also trying to figure out how to utilise her husband's cash, give to charity, or contribute towards the cathedral. A nondescript angel, Dudley, comes in the form of a debonaire Cary Grant.

It is funny that the leaders of the same religion that calls for peace on Earth are the very same ones that call for war. The same people who call for equality are the very people who create trade imbalances. Somehow, when God supposedly created Man as equal in his own spitting image, He meant to make some more important than others. Some were designed to be slaves and to be whipped to submission. Others deserved to be colonised and bullied for their possessions.

They justify all these by building places of worship to glorify their own religion and erecting schools that denigrate other peoples' belief systems. A group of preachers are also hellbent on evangelising and converting as many lost souls as possible as they preserve prosperity in their own Motherland. The rest of the world can burn; they would find perfect bliss in fiddling!

Hey, it's Christmas. The message of peace on Earth, the glory of God and the joy of giving are the season's flavour. Come the new year, it is business as usual.

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The better man?

Gunga Din (1939)

Director: George Steven

This Hollywood movie is based on a poem written by Rudyard Kipling. Kipling, as we know, is quite proud of his European heritage. He and the colonial masters of his era vehemently believed that it was the burden of the white race to civilise the natives. They, the native with their odd-looking physiques, their equally funny-looking attires (or lack of), peculiar living habits and bizarre mode of worship by European standards and Judeo-Christian point of reference, are their subject of mockery.

It is a light comedy detailing three disciplinarily-challenged army sergeants sent off to the late 19th century Northwest Frontier of Northern Punjab to check out some disturbances. They find a band of Kaali-worshipping ruthless 'terrorists' @ thugees taking over their post. The story is about how they defeat the thugs with the help of a naive local man named Gunga Din.

Before jumping onto the bandwagon of the woke to blame all our current pathetic state of affairs on the colonial masters, we should remember that Kipling and this movie were off at a time when only the victors could dictate how history should be written. The colonists, because of their native languages, are considered irrelevant, persona-non-grata.

We see the British slave-drilling their subjects on their high horses and looking down on Indians. The Indian collies seem to be bending behind backwards to kill their fellow Indians to earn extra brownie points. Their life ambition was to serve as a soldier to the Queen and the Empire.

The story is based on Kipling's poem about a 'useful' idiot named Gunga Din, a run-around water boy at the beck and call to squeeze some water from his goatskin bag. Despite all the heckling and shoving, Gunga Din's life ambition is to serve his Master and earn his validation. He hopes to be, one day, to be drafted into the British Army. Din does that in style by gunning down his own people and even taking a bullet for his Boss. He is enlisted posthumously and is conferred the rank of corporal. At the film's end, his bosses reminisce about the character running around with a water bag. They look into the horizon calling Din 'a better man' than anyone in the British Army can be.

"... though I've belted you and flayed you,

        by the livin' Gawd that made you,

you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!"

At the outset, from the time of opening credit, the filmmakers made a declaration. They specified that their depiction of Kali worship was based on historical facts. Their idea of facts is what eventually turned out as an 'eyeball delicacy' scene that was seen in 1984's 'Indiana Jones'. They took mugshots at Kali and her worshippers, making them look like buffoons. In actuality, they were merely defending their land. Gunga Din was no 'better man' but a traitor to his own people. It was the people like him who facilitated the 250,000-strong British East India Company soldiers to have control domination over 170 million Indians in 1857.

Much like the Spanish conquistadors swept the Aztec and Mayan temples clean of gold, the British in India also thought it was the birthright to usurp all the gold displayed in the Hindu temples without respect to local ownership. This was daylight robbery. I reckon this must have been no different from what the Muslim invaders did to India before them.

Gunga Din

BY RUDYARD KIPLING

You may talk o’ gin and beer   

When you’re quartered safe out ’ere,   

An’ you’re sent to penny-fights an’ Aldershot it;

But when it comes to slaughter   

You will do your work on water,

An’ you’ll lick the bloomin’ boots of ’im that’s got it.   

Now in Injia’s sunny clime,   

Where I used to spend my time   

A-servin’ of ’Er Majesty the Queen,   

Of all them blackfaced crew   

The finest man I knew

Was our regimental bhisti, Gunga Din,   

      He was ‘Din! Din! Din!

   ‘You limpin’ lump o’ brick-dust, Gunga Din!

      ‘Hi! Slippy hitherao

      ‘Water, get it! Panee lao,

   ‘You squidgy-nosed old idols, Gunga Din.’

The uniform ’e wore

Was nothin’ much before,

An’ rather less than ’arf o’ that be’ind,

For a piece o’ twisty rag   

An’ a goatskin water-bag

Was all the field-equipment ’e could find.

When the sweatin’ troop-train lay

In a sidin’ through the day,

Where the ’eat would make your bloomin’ eyebrows crawl,

We shouted ‘Harry By!’

Till our throats were bricky-dry,

Then we wopped ’im ’cause ’e couldn’t serve us all.

      It was ‘Din! Din! Din!

   ‘You ’eathen, where the mischief ’ave you been?   

      ‘You put some juldee in it

      ‘Or I’ll marrow you this minute

   ‘If you don’t fill up my helmet, Gunga Din!’

’E would dot an’ carry one

Till the longest day was done;

An’ ’e didn’t seem to know the use o’ fear.

If we charged or broke or cut,

You could bet your bloomin’ nut,

’E’d be waitin’ fifty paces right flank rear.   

With ’is mussick on ’is back,

’E would skip with our attack,

An’ watch us till the bugles made 'Retire,’   

An’ for all ’is dirty ’ide

’E was white, clear white, inside

When ’e went to tend the wounded under fire!   

      It was ‘Din! Din! Din!’

   With the bullets kickin’ dust-spots on the green.   

      When the cartridges ran out,

      You could hear the front-ranks shout,   

   ‘Hi! ammunition-mules an' Gunga Din!’

I shan’t forgit the night

When I dropped be’ind the fight

With a bullet where my belt-plate should ’a’ been.   

I was chokin’ mad with thirst,

An’ the man that spied me first

Was our good old grinnin’, gruntin’ Gunga Din.   

’E lifted up my ’ead,

An’ he plugged me where I bled,

An’ ’e guv me ’arf-a-pint o’ water green.

It was crawlin’ and it stunk,

But of all the drinks I’ve drunk,

I’m gratefullest to one from Gunga Din.

      It was 'Din! Din! Din!

   ‘’Ere’s a beggar with a bullet through ’is spleen;   

   ‘’E's chawin’ up the ground,

      ‘An’ ’e’s kickin’ all around:

   ‘For Gawd’s sake git the water, Gunga Din!’

’E carried me away

To where a dooli lay,

An’ a bullet come an’ drilled the beggar clean.   

’E put me safe inside,

An’ just before ’e died,

'I ’ope you liked your drink,’ sez Gunga Din.   

So I’ll meet ’im later on

At the place where ’e is gone—

Where it’s always double drill and no canteen.   

’E’ll be squattin’ on the coals

Givin’ drink to poor damned souls,

An’ I’ll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din!   

      Yes, Din! Din! Din!

   You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!   

   Though I’ve belted you and flayed you,   

      By the livin’ Gawd that made you,

   You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!

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Just to de-stress!

Bullet Train (2022)
Director: David Leitch

This movie gives a feeling of watching 'Kill Bill' or 'Pulp Fiction'. There is a Quentin Tarantino feel to it with much chaos and twists in its storyline. There are mindless fighting and meaningless killings. The storyline is so convoluted that it makes a Bollywood offering an Aesop fable with a straightforward storyline. Despite the violence and gore, the dialogue paints a picture of a dark comedy. And the scriptwriter must have been trying very hard to sound philosophical by inserting Eastern philosophy here and there. Coincidentally, the film is an adaptation of a Japanese story.

The story revolves around the high-octane somersaulting and shooting action upon a speeding bullet train travelling between Tokyo and Kyoto. A self-proclaimed harbinger of bad-lucked assassin codenamed 'Lady Bug' embarks on the train with a mission to seize a particular suitcase. He is merely filling in for another hitman who is hit with a bug. Unknowest to him, a gang leader and his henchmen are to get the absent hitman. Now, the gang leader's daughter also wants to kill her father. To lure another old enemy of his father aboard the train, she drops his child from a building.

This confusing plot forms the background of a CGI-filled meaningless entertainment that would excite the feeble-minded. Along the way, to lure intellectual discourse, they threw in hints of chaos theory, the randomness of life and the possibility of how the flutter of a butterfly can start a tsunami!

The makers of the movie have been accused of whitewashing the whole story. Even though the setting can be anywhere, not necessarily in Japan, and the characters just carry codenames, the filmmakers cannot be made to go off the hook. They stereotype Japanese service workers as docile, unresponsive people who are ready to take a proper bow in salutation even though there is total destruction and mayhem around them. And that is supposed to be light entertainment.

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A wounded mother

The Mirror Crack'd (1980)

Director: Guy Hamilton

Gene Tierney was acclaimed for her great beauty in Hollywood. She was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1944 and even had a brief affair with JFK before he had political ambitions. After a performance at a World War 2 fundraiser event, she was kissed by a fan convalescing from rubella. Unbeknownst to her, she was in her early stage of pregnancy. She went on to deliver a baby with multiple birth defects due to congenital rubella syndrome. Gene Tierney spent the rest of her life emotionally disturbed caring for her baby. When Agatha Christie read about the actress in 1962, her creative juices must have worked overtime to imagine the feelings of a grieving mother.

Gene Tierney

Of course, there cannot be Agatha Christie's whodunnit with no murders. 

Ms Marple, in 1953, is residing in a small village in the English countryside. A film crew comes to the village to do some shooting. In midst of all the excitement, the villagers also witness a couple of murders. Ms Marple, with the help of her 'favourite' nephew from Scotland Yard, gets to the bottom of it all.

The movie saw the appearance of many stalwarts of yesteryears in the twilight of their careers. It saw Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, Tony Curtis and Kim Novak. Angela Lansbury was there as Ms Marple. Lansbury's career was, of course, still flying high, and she went on to complete 12 seasons of 'Murder, She wrote' from 1984 to 1996.

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Eyeball to eyeball; the fellow blinked!

Thirteen Days (2000)

Director: Roger Donaldson

Recently Barbados, the Island Country in the Caribbean, cut her ties from British Commonwealth and declared herself a republic. She unceremoniously replaced QEII with her President as the Head of State to cut off England's previous legacy in slavery. 

It also declared China as a friendly nation to rub salt on an open wound. To strengthen bilateral ties, flights between countries were commenced, and Barbados went so far as to let the Middle Kingdom finance many of its development projects. The Western world decries that this is a prelude to a takeover of Barbados by China via debt traps. Barbados denies, saying that China's loans constitute only 2.5% of the nation's total debt.

America is, of course, hot under the collar because of its proximity to the United States. This kind of reminds us of the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the autumn of 1962, which almost triggered the Third World War. 

Soviet SS4 ballistic missiles.

After the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, Cuba requested Big Brother protection. The Soviet Union offered to park some medium-range missiles in Cuba, just in case. This was discovered by the prying USAF U2 spy planes.

The movie tries to capture the events that unfolded over the next thirteen days in October 1962 as President Kennedy and his team tried to get these nuclear missiles far away from their soil. It is told from the point of view of JFK's political secretary, Kenneth O'Donnell. 

It showcases the Army bigwigs so gungho in pushing the Big Red Button to start a war with the Soviet Union as JFK attempts desperately to avert a clash. Kenneth O'Donnell is seen as a kingmaker in cutting many back deals behind the scene with the Russians. JFK imposed a 'quarantine' to prevent Soviet missiles from reaching Cuba by sea. It was purposely not labelled 'blockade' as it would infer aggression and justify war. The US did lose a pilot and had another plane shot at as it went on its clandestine reconnaissance work. Still, it was hushed from the media apparently by O'Donnell's backhand manoeuvres. Of course, O'Donnell's keen involvement in the whole hoopla is denied by many who were directly involved in the crisis. They say that his job was just to attend to JFK's political needs, not actively influencing the President's and the AG's (Robert Kennedy) decisions! 

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A makeover?

The War of the Roses(1989)
Directed by: Danny DeVito

Watching this movie again after 30 years gives a different perspective to this movie altogether. In the first viewing, the message I remember taking back was that divorces are nasty affairs. Period. Now, it opens a different perspective of what is going through the minds of each of the involved parties as they execute each move to prosecute and subsequently persecute their significant other. 

For those in the dark about this movie, it came about at a time when the trio of Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito was riding high after their super-duper blockbusters' Romancing the Stone' and its sequel' Jewel of the Nile'.

The original 'War of the Roses' refers to the feud between factions of English Nobel houses which were eyeing the English throne in the Middle Ages. In this film, however, the war is between the Man and Wife of the Rose family.

It starts with a law student, Oliver, meeting Barbara, a gymnast, at an auction site. It was love at first sight, and they hooked up. They marry, have two kids and prosper together as Oliver's career goes from strength to strength. Over the years, Oliver had become a hotshot lawyer, and Barbara manages the kids and the home. Life was blissful when in melodious lyrics of 'Obladi Oblada' Progressively, Barbara starts feeling that she is just playing second fiddle to the whole set-up. Oliver seems to be doing all the intelligent, correct, and appropriate things whilst she remains socially awkward and not-so-intelligent. Rift builds up.

All the while, Oliver left all the managing of the domestic front to his wife while he concentrated on his role as the provider. He brought the cash, and she managed diligently. He thought everybody cared for each other playing their respective roles for the betterment of everyone in the Rose family. So, sixteen years of his marriage, when he was admitted for a suspected myocardial infarct, he was flabbergasted. Oliver thought he was going to die, but Barbara did not even show concern. She was more engrossed in her newly-found interest in catering. The children were already gone to college. One thing led to another, and Barbara finally admits that the loving feeling is gone. She wants a divorce. In comes the negotiations and the legal wrangle over the possession of the family home. Both parties feel they had invested too much in the house to just give it up just like that. The fight to own the house becomes so explosive and personal until they end up hanging on the chandelier in the phenomenal final scene of the movie, both refusing to give up ownership.

Till death do you apart?
Not stopping just at the kitchen sink. 

How did it end up like this? Snap out of it. This is reality. Eternal love and till death brings us apart only happens in the dreamer's make-believe world. Fairy tales do not tell what happens after the last page that says, "...and they lived happily forever and ever!' Biochemical excitations that spark at the spring of youth fizzles with advancing age in declining virility and altered life priorities. These changes differ between individuals. Rift occurs, and existential crisis may ensue.

Perhaps in man, this midlife crisis may manifest in acts of flamboyance- buying a flashy sports car, renewed interests in new hobbies or even seeking a trophy wife or mistress are sure give away tell-tale signs. In others, maybe, it is an existential crisis- a validation of sorts of their existence. They may re-evaluate all they had done in their life and realise that they had sacrificed too much for others' well-being and forgot their own in the process. They would have found solace in helicoptering their children. But they had overgrown their nest and want to fly solo. Again they feel disposed. They may delve into spirituality to improve their standings in Life 2.0 or dive head-on into something new, away from all their previous commitments. A revolution or just for the kick of it? What the heck. 

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