Lost in Criterion

Peter Brook's 1963 adaptation of the classic novel about a bunch of boys lost on an island who slowly kill each other because that's how humanity works, apparently?

John Lurie's hilariously surreal fishing show from 1992. Why it's in the Criterion Collection, no man can say, but we're glad it is.

Laurence Olivier's 1944 propagandist (at the behest of Churchill himself) adaptation of Henry V is not only Olivier's first film directorial, it's also the first time in film history that an adaptation of one of Shakespeare's plays actually made money. It was nominated for four Academy Awards but only managed to garner Olivier an Honorary Oscar for "for his outstanding achievement as actor, producer and director in bringing Henry V to the screen." Honorary Oscars are, as you know, even more masturbatory than real Oscars, though that doesn't lessen Olivier's feat here. It's a fine production with a lot of smart choices behind it. If only Pat and Adam could make it through a Shakespearean History without losing focus.

It's the episode you've all been waiting for. Since we made it through Pasolin's Salo this was the next film of dread albeit for (thankfully) different reasons. But still dread nevertheless.

Armageddon is Michael Bay's 1998 sophomore work that challenges our understanding of what The Criterion Collection is actually collecting. We come up some good justifications with this week's special guest Stephen Goldmeier. We also complain a lot. Because there is so much to complain about. So very much.

Bewilderingly Armageddon was nominated for four Academy Awards and won two Saturn Awards (including tying for Dark City for Best Sci-Fi Film). Less bewilderingly it was nominated for seven Razzies, though only won one. 

Seijun Suzuki's 1966 film Tokyo Drifter is more comprehensible than Branded to Kill -- it does actually have a discernible plot for most of the film --  but barely -- there's an extended fight scene that plays like a Merry Melodies short. The studio didn't like this one either. While Tokyo Drifter didn't lead directly to Suzuki's firing, it did get his color film privileges revoked, which is why the later Branded to Kill is in black and white while Tokyo Drifter has, quite honestly, a really excellent integration of color and non-color footage.

Seijun Suzuki's Branded to Kill (as well as next week's film, Tokyo Drifter) is a B movie Yakuza film from a guy who could make a B movie Yakuza film in his sleep who wanted to do something different. Released in 1967 Branded to Kill led directly to Suzuki being fired for turning in a completely "incomprehensible" film. Considering that Suzuki is a director who doesn't believe there's even such a thing as "film grammar", on it's surface the studio's criticism may have a point. After viewing Branded to Kill it's obvious that they do. It's also obvious why this film is cited as influential by John Woo, Quentin Tarantino, Park Jan-wook, and Jim Jarmusch.

It's a mess.

But it's a fun mess.

Terry Gilliam's 1981 fantasy film Time Bandits is a polarizing film, it seems. If you experience it at a time when you can relate to the main character, a put-upon boy with a Roald Dahl-ian family life, it may be your favorite movie of all time. Elsewise, well, you may not like it at all. It's a movie that is successfully written (and often physically shot) from the point of view of its young protagonist, running on child-logic and attacking some pretty big questions as best a child can -- Kevin asks the Supreme Being why evil exists and is told "I think it has something to do with free will." Of course it's also a Terry Gilliam film, so maybe that's why some people just don't like it.

Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages of Fear (1953), only serves to hammer home the fact that he had a better hand for suspense than Hitchcock. The Wages of Fear manages to be one of the most suspenseful films in history without being anything close to a murder mystery or spy thriller or horror film. Take the explosive threat that drives the suspense in the opening scene of Touch of Evil and expand to two hours, keeping it the background terror of a deep character study on the various ways fear takes its toll on man. As Bosley Crowther said in his New York Times review on the movies initial release: "You sit there waiting for the theater to explode."