Punks

Francis Ford Coppola

presents

Rumble Fish (1983)

Coppola creates beautiful films. Think of Apocalypse Now & The Outsiders. Rumble Fish is a brooding, pulsating drama of a disturbed youth surviving through a troubled upbringing. His brother, the anti hero of the movie is meant to be an intimidating gang member, but is living only on reputation. He is imortalised with his name 'The Motorcycle Boy' remaining scrawled on the bare walls in the outskirts of Tulsa, Oklahoma. This modern city is skyline opens the movie, creating an idea of civilised society, people in work or appartment blocks. However the section we is the opposite. Dark wastelands under bridges, fenced alleyways whose concrete ground is cracked and the rain (pathetic fallasy for this depressive atmosphere) fills these; its pockmarked with puddles. 

The heavily contrasted film echoes that of film noir. Mystery surrounds this ambiguous plot which is submerged in underlying meanings and symbolsim. It begins however more conventionally. There is a dance like fight (similar to West Side Story), but both parties of Rusty James, and Biff Willcox seem to want to hide their apprehension prior to it. Rusty is backed with the protection of an rabble of a gang, and Wilcox is hiding behind drugs to numb his senses. However, they overcome this and the fight is electrifying as Coppola switches between shadow and illuminating sparks of white light. 

This is a story of a boy, struggling to understand the actions of his friends, his alcoholic dad, his legendarily cool brother. He wants to be more than simple, and its sad to see people not giving him a chance. His bravado is captured in his unique look of a white vest and rambo styled bandana and also a black leather biking jacket.

Matt Dillon (The Outsiders - the less avant-guard younger brother to Rumble Fish) is a great youthful actor who captures the pain and confusion in his facial expressions. He is naive yet more earnest than some gangsters who are portrayed on film nowadays. In this way, you feel sorry for him but not in a pitiful way, but angry that his situation is inevitable and the poverty that he lives in through no fault of his own, is so hard to overcome for a 17 year old. He is the epitome of the wasted youth.

Nicolas Cage, Diane Lane and Vincent Spano - the other kids in the movie - keep Rumble Fish less malicious, and we remember they are just kids who have the same teenage problems of love and school conflict. However they also highlight how genuinly unsatisfactory Rusty James's home life is as all their lives are more protected. Diane Lane as Patty portrays a similar character to that of The Outsiders; the girl who lives in a more conventional and safe world yet is tempted by the wild rebellious life Rusty James lives.

The film has a motif of Rumble Fish - fighting fish who will end up even fighting themselves if they see themselves in the reflection of the glass tank of a fish bowl. They are the only things in colour, giving the film a psychedellic edge and you worry that Rusty and his brother will only find an outlet through drugs (luckily Rusty is in defiance to Heroin yet The Motorcycle Boy lives life more carefree, his idea of morality is frayed after years of fighting in punk gangs). The evolutionary fighting nature suggests that the kids can't escape their personalities and upbrining. They instead will fight inwardly whether to try and better themselves or capitulate into their fate. Also presented is the idea that human instincts to live within a pack conflict with the lone wolf impulses that torture all. 

This film is elegantly rugged, this feeling created by the lush contrast cloaking this dark subject matter. This is the most unorthodox take on a teen movie before Kids - there is no Hollywood-esque structure it conforms to which is very refreshing. Lastly, Matt Dillion is the best actor for any JD type anti-hero.

He's real bitchin' man

****

appologies for these reviews getting longer... comment if you want and thanks for bothering to read :)

Wild West Americana juice (Paris, Texas 1984)

Paris, Texas (1984)

Immediately there is a juxtaposition in the title; Paris and Texas - two very distant, different places yet are joined by their inclusion in American terminology for describing places - like London, England. Before watching, I thought this film was certainly going to be surreal as this film is created by Wings of Desire director - Wim Wenders. Him being German allows him to look in on the American culture, and present it in a way that is not overbearingly laboured, or really patriotic. Paris, Texas makes me think of a dustbowl hamlet in the middle of the desert; the town planners thought they were being ironic.

And thus, The film beings with a panoramic view of the desert, and walking over dunes is a biblical figure donning a red baseball cap. It is his version of the Christian cross, instead for
the religion of the American man. The colour of the sandly yellow against the blue sky and red of the cap is sharpened due to Wender's ability with framing and creating effects with lighting. The simplicity of these primary colours creates the atmosphere continued throughout the film; a passive calming appraisal of a life in the American west.

Its a road movie as well. The trajectory is mostly straight - like his idea to find Paris, Texas although, his motives which are confused and unknown, create deviations off the freeway.  

Apparently Wender's was inspired by the Searchers - a Western in which the lone figure of John Wayne travels, without a clear plan to find his niece captured by Native Americans (it's a very good film)

However, this film is punctuated by relics of consumerism. They are almost as beautiful as the natural landscape now we have been brought up seeing them all the time. This is conveyed when our raggedy wanderer, when understanding his brother designs the billboards exclaims that they are 'real pretty'. Amusingly he believes he is the sole maker...

This idea of the one person that fits a purpose in life goes throughout the film. In a child's mind we have this idea of all the adults we meet. There is less ambiguety and this is how our man sees the world until he surfaces again into society. He wants to find out who 'the father' is? Does this relate to God, as he searches for his place of conception, or notion to the American stereotype of the familial roles? He gets amusing advice from the helper woman who states there are only two types of fathers - rich or poor and how ones outward appearance dictates which one you are.

Contrastingly, it is the child who creates the points of tension in the movie and is the one who is most mature. Our child, Hunter, ends up having two fathers and he can't explain this problem. He tackles it well though, as the kid is a sarky LA 80s kid whos sardonic language is funny - in LA the kids grow up quickly. We worry for the kid - if all this complication with his dad will affect him or when he drives away with his dad, if he will be safe. Through him we also see emblems of 80s america which now look pretty retro - like a Nasa bomber jacket, or a Star Wars bed quilt. (He's a pretty cool kid)

The simple purity of travelling is conveyed as our man wants to walk everywhere - people need to re-engage with their legs again. It's sad because its so peaceful and easy and correct (because that is what we evolved to be able to do). Especially when the car became an essential in the 80s,
it seems like no one walks for the sake of walking anymore.

Similar to Wings of Desire, the screenplay is very thoughtful, though more naturalistic which is interesting. It makes it seem more like an Art film where the viewer is just witnessing someones life, filmed neutrally. The film beings with a sparse commentary as our wanderer doesn't talk, however at the end he ends up reciting a beautiful recount of his life and how he ended up like he was at the beginning. The cycle of the story is envisaged so nicely. Just as nice as the mother 'Jane' is with her 80s cropped blond hair and pink fluffy jumper. Despite being a prostitute, she is quite demure and incongruous As Wenders doesn't portray these woman as obvious 'scums of the earth' kind of characters, it is quite refreshing.

This film for me was really compelling and the tranquility of the bluesy soundtrack lulled you into a state of awe and passiveness as you journey in the brilliant sun of Texas, through dusty outposts that could be the last point of civilisation before the vastity of the Mojave desert. Then going deep into Huston, a futuristic city which when drenched in orange dawn light, makes you think your on Mars (in the future when we can go and live there curtesy of NASA). The director makes you quizzical to what direction you will take your own life through the use of multiple shots of roads, dissapearing into the horizon, or raised highways, criss-crossing over the characters' heads.

****

Making Sense of Vietnam

Apocalypse Now (1979)

This is not a blockbuster film; this is not an action adventure - there is nothing that can be said about this film to romanticize it. Apocalypse Now is a shocking eye-opener for someone who had only heard rumours about Vietnam. I had previously watched films seeing the protests; seeing returning casualties try to endure re-entry to civilian life (Forrest Gump). Also I learned about the student protests in a long list of dates, statistics and acronyms.

R 'n R

Watching Apocalypse Now was trippy. A surreal psychological experience where ones eyes are glued to the screen. You are submerged into the contrasting atmosphere of gliding down idyllic jungle rivers, with the sun reflecting off the water in a radiant orange glow, and dark, stark realities of an anti-communist war in the eyes of USA. It is impossible for thoughts to meander away from what unfurls in front of you.

The soundtrack of ambient atonal orchestra music and the Door's The End  were the perfect non-digetic tracks - and really - The Doors track made the film for me; an 11 minute wavering, lyrical hymn to pyschedelia and all it stands for. The fatalism emerging from this song is what makes it so poignant for a film like Apocalypse Now. America went in too deep and now are now reaping the consequences whilst swinging on the rope noose, tightening on their guilty necks.

America from my point of view are bolshy, and unashamedly self-righteous. All started with the Truman Doctrine when President Truman declared it was America's duty to protect the world from Communism. This fear of this antithetical threat escalated in to an irrational hatred, that was first shown politically, then physically with crazy witch-hunts for communists and bizarre cult of McCarthyism. Then 'Nam came along... I don't know the origins yet somehow like a malignant tumour, the panic spread; conscription by birthday amassed a rabble of an army. An army of youths lead by stubborn incompetent Generals will never be successful. We learn about the protests but not exactly why they were protesting. Now witnessing where they were going - it angers me further as the protests didn't end the war or stop conscription. American's are not allowed to buy alcohol until 21 yet it is apparently okay to send them to Vietnam - to experience such atrocities.

Just how incredibly farcical the whole situation had become was witnessed in the 'epic' flight of helicopters descending on a village at dawn. Colonel Kilgore hollers; 'play the music - my boys love it' and Ride of the Valkyries swarms from above. It is incredible cinema. However patriotic this scene may be, it is horrifying to see the lack of remorse, and enjoyment the men are having when flying in the helicopters. Until mistakes are made and death swoops down. The realism of the fun, coloured gas and bright explosions of Napalm of are complete opposites to the harrowing events

Mental instability is a massive topic tackled here yet there is no clear resolution - the ambiguity leaves you unsettled but provokes much thought. The acid culture that the soldiers bring with them, creates a dream world where they are fighting unconsciously. They only see the hatred of 'Charlie' which has been fueled by propaganda and lies. When the target - Colonel Kurtz (the ultimate soldier gone insane) - surfaces, we join Francis Ford Coppola on a journey into the depth of the deteriorating mind. It expresses a human conflict between our beliefs in being civilised and primordial instincts of seeking power within nature. Marlon Brando is memorable as his poetic words spoken delicately are really quite chilling.

This film must be watched with foundation of knowledge of Vietnam war to fully appreciate it. Best film.
*****