Addenda on movies

With Arthur et les Minimoys out in theatres, Wired did a story about the pop culture legacy of Luc Besson. It runs through a few of the actors and character archetypes he brought to our attention in his ten films (or really the ones that got released or remade in America). This makes a nice addition to my previous homage to Luc Besson.

I revisited my comments on Casino Royale from when it came out, and I realized multiple viewings did change my view of the film, especially the final third. Knowing what is really going on in Vesper's head, and why she's conflicted and alternates between warm and prickly, really made the romance between Bond and Vesper flow a lot better, and seem less of a typical Hollywood "Now that our lips have brushed I must have your babies" instantaneous romance. It really was a great film, and it definitely held up in the three times I saw it in five days Thanksgiving weekend.

I also finally caught the ridiculous, three and half hour extended using every available bit of footage cut of Apocalypse Now that Francis Ford Coppola released a couple years ago as Apocalypse Now Redux. It is a fantastic film, and most of the additional footage blends in very smoothly. The extended surfing mania of Robert Duvall is hilarious, and well worth checking out, especially Martin Sheen stealing his surfboard for spite... Charlie don't surf!

One thing that was jarring was the chronology felt different. I felt like the original edit had this progression where the farther they go up river, the psychology and mood of the whole group becomes increasingly neurotic, as they get deeper into the same darkness that swallowed up C0lonel Kurtz. Lance seemed like the yardstick as he starts putting on face paint and dropping acid in a combat zone, but in this edit he seems to descend into lunacy a long time before they get near Kurtz. The change in the timeline also changes the implied reason for Willard to complete his mission. The original edit implies that when Kurtz brings him Chef's head, Willard resolves any remaining ambivalence about Kurtz and kills him, which is continuous with his order to Chef to call in an air strike. The extended stay in the camp in the extended edit introduces new motivation, that Kurtz himself knows this is coming to an end. This is a fascinating symmetry with Duvall's Colonel Kilgore, who has the same anxiety that the war may end: both men see that it will end without accomplishment, and there will be a void left in both of them they can't fill.

There's only one segment that feels out of place, the French plantation, which may introduce some interesting material for the film, but comes so late that it seemed out of place with the mood I expected from that section of the film, based on seeing the original edit; it's too jarring to see Capt Willard sit down to a dining room table that far upriver. This may be something that requires more viewings and a fresh perspective, tying it back to the meal at the beginning of the film. Also surprising was that in this longer cut, there's still very little about the man sent before Willard, Capt Colby. There's something to the idea that Kurtz may have broken and converted Colby but eventually just releases Willard, showing the fight going out of Kurtz, so I would have expected a bit more of Colby beyond the initial look Willard gets of him. I still say it's a great movie, and an appropriate one to re-release in this way when America's fighting two more land wars in Asia. Three and a half hours but worth every minute.