I decided against staying up to watch the Oscar ceremony live in the early hours of last Monday morning and instead rose around five as the telecast was ending and fast tracked through the recording to the bits which most interested, cutting out the inane Sky studio team who performance was among the worst of all those inane studio teams of previous years. I avoided the red carpet interviews which some find entertaining although the frocks appear only a more expensive cut than those worn in the better class of brothel and presumably intended to attract the attention of the present and future film contract. Its show business folks, or as Ethel Merman sang, There’s no business like show business.
I was pleased with outcome in that the awful but much hyped Tinker Tailor with Gary Oldman in for best male actor came nowhere as at he Baftas and Meryil Streep deservedly gained her third Oscar for the performance as Mrs Thatcher. One hostile critic argued that this was a mimic performance which indicates his ignorance or dubious bias or both. She paid due credit to make up who also got an award.
As also forecast the Artist got Best Picture, Best Direction and Best male artist plus two others, five of the ten nominations and although I have stubbornly refused to view the film in theatre, I look forward to the televised production in a year’s time. Similarly I will view the Help which gained the best supporting as at the Baftas together with the Descendents where George Clooney has been much praised and Brad Pitt for Moneyball about baseball which I have never taken to although made several efforts, The Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris and Hugo are also on the list and perhaps Warhorse and Extremely Loud and Incredibility Clear.
Apparently despite the hundreds of millions reported to be viewing the event world wide the USA audience finished last year to just above the Emmy’s at around 40 million so for this season every effort was made to make the show more attractive and hold viewers. There were several innovations with instead of photographs and excerpts for In Memoriam were simple cards although departing members of academy were given more attention. There appeared to be fewer movie snap shots ands these were grouped with the awards. There was tribute to the history of film and to three previous recipients previously unable to be present who sat together in a side box.
The nice award of the evening went to Christopher Plummer who beat Max Von Sydow (who got the Bafta) for best supporting actor in a male role and who commented that there was only a couple of years between him and the years of the Oscars with both in their 80’s. Max is only a year or to younger and the two men have over 150 years of life experience. Three cheers for the oldies.
Now to my recent film viewing and first a repeat of film seen in theatre in 1999 and since on TV: American Beauty with two actors who never fail to give A class performances Kevin Spacey and Angela Bening. The film won Oscar Best Picture, Best Direction for Sam Members Best Actor of Spacey, Best original Screenplay and Best cinema photography.
First my take on the film which I regard as a fair and good account of that point in a marriage when periodic sex, however good, is not sufficient cement to prevent both partners remembering and wanting to recapture past experience, assuming it was better or panicking that they will miss out on what they believe others imply is better. In addition and argued more important is when one or both lose respect for the other and the values they have developed.
Bening has become a consumer queen, protective of the expensive goods she has surrounded herself to advertise who she was and critical of Spacey’s failure to want and achieve more. She is a property real estate agent and admires the local Mr Success man despite the fact that he is a class A shit. Eventually she balls him to her great personal satisfaction and then is distraught when he finds the excuse to reject her all too common experience which goes on in many a marriage, almost unnoticed. However this is a side show to the life Kevin leads.
Kevin Spacey is Lester a middle aged magazine writer a job he has come to loathe. When he about to be sacked he is able to blackmail his way to a $60000 pay off which buys him time to work out what to do. (The subject of what happens to high earners when they are laid off will be covered at an entirely different level of seriousness in Company Men which is to follow and which was also the subject of the George Clooney film Up in the Air where he flew around America getting rid of executives).
When Lester’s cash begins to run out and he becomes bored with doing nothing he remembers how much he enjoyed working at in a fast food restaurant but has to talk himself into getting a job because of his age and previous job levels. He is very satisfied by the work which leads him to finding our about his wife’s infidelity when she arrives in the drive in lane with the lover.
However Lester’s attention is elsewhere. He is persuaded to attend his daughter’s high school where she is a cheerleader basketball game he is attention is caught by the sixteen year old best friend of his daughter who is clearly glittered by his attention. She is sixteen to make it legal for most USA and Western audiences but in reality n she could have been any age from fourteen to twenty to make the same point.
She gives the impression of being highly experienced sexually, attracted to older men and ridicules the virginity of the daughter who is a young woman with low self esteem. The two frequently spar over the subject and the daughter Jane who becomes the subject of interest to the son of a retired Marine Colonel who has moved in next door, finds the way her father and friend interact as gross.
Lester begins to lust after the beautiful creature which the camera is always surrounding with bright red rose petals to emphasise the romantic as well as sexual attraction (I know it also a take on the suburban concept of American Beauty). His interest is fired when he overhears a conversation between daughter and friend in which Angela says she would be interested in him if only he worked out and got into better shape. This provides Lester with a mission so he starts to work out.
Lester also makes friends his daughter’s friend who although on probation for alleged drug use is in fact the neighbourhood supplier of good stuff marijuana. Ricky only deals to provide funds for his hobby which is film and photography and the room is filled with tapes with his favourite which he views on TV that of a white plastic bag floating and which he shares with Jane.
Unfortunately as it transpires he unintentionally films Kevin working out naked that his father sees and then when he goes over to the gym to provide a new supply of stuff, his father misjudges what he can see as a gay relationship. When he confronts his son, the son who is fed up with living at home does not deny the charge as a means of being thrown out and providing the impetus for his ambition to go and live in New York. He has no difficulty in persuading Jane to go with him.
Jane has criticised Angela for her interest in Lester and Ricky tells her that she is ordinary. Angela is left alone in the house with Lester and makes a play for him. On the bed ready to give her she discloses that she is a virgin and hopes he will not be disappointed. This jolts Kevin into the reality of the situation and although she feels she is being rejected he is able to comfort in a fatherly way and the two bond despite the gulf in experience and perspectives.
The problem is that the Marine Colonel is closet gay and full of passion comes over to Lester and kisses him. Rejected he returns home in a disturbed state.
We are told early on in the film that this is night when the life of Lester ends and in the film is his all of life flashback in those self aware moments before death. We see him in a pool of vivid blood and hear him saying that he has no regrets as to how his life ended. The film is ambiguous over who shoots Lester with the most likely the colonel as we see one of his guns missing while the wife who is just as disturbed after her rejection is also returning home with a gun placed in the glove compartment.
So from my perspective American Beauty is film which should be judged as a glossy story with good acting and great photography set in suburban middle class America but others have elevated to a different level about notions of beauty, romantic and parental loves as well as sexuality. It is also about the impact of consumerism and materialism and alienation which many come to feel in middle age coming up and immediately after retirement, plus ways of achieving self liberation and redemption. In fairness it is all the latter dressed up and softened in such a way to provide weekend entertainment and challenge rather than attack its audience with perhaps the Middle America tea party value that even to lust after something or someone has a price in the present as well as the afterlife.
The focal point can be said to be the sequence of the paper bag. It is only in a comfortable middle and upper class society that a mini film about a floating paper bag can be considered art or entertaining when for billions of people in the world the challenge and is sufficient food and water, avoiding mortal sickness and the rape and slaughter by ones neighbours or government.
The company man is about the effects of ruthless corporate capitalism in the changing global economy and recession. The Chairman/Chief Executive manages to take home $22 million in the year in which he is required to down size in order to raise the share price in the face of a take over threat. He gives the impression of wanting to stay on at the head of the company he has built with right hand man and deputy, Gene LcClary played by the great Tommy Lee Jones. When all his down sizing fails and the company is acquired he nets $600 million from his stock options.
Tommy Lee helped build up the company from the ship building and repair division which take the brunt of the initial cost cutting because it is an area where the world market had changed, Among those who go in the first tranch is head sales man Bobby Walker played by Ben Affleck.
He is as self confident and often distant from his wife and children because of the requirements of the job, enjoying his fast car and condescending towards his brother in law who runs a small four man businesses repairing buildings. When he is suddenly told he is laid off with a severance package which involve placement with a job finding agency he is sufficiently self confident to tell his wife (who immediately understand the implications) that they can continue with their lifestyle and that the news should be kept from their children, his parents and her brother. He slowly learns the reality of the position and eventually is driven to accepting a labouring job with his brother in law and to moving in with his parents. He is humiliated and depressed but his wife comments that when he comes home now he is with them and he is able to spend time with his children, The film depicts something of the life led by those with the job search agency and the bond which develops between them. The brother in law is played by an aging Kevin Costner who had his own problems keeping the business afloat working all hours but this is normal way of life made more difficult because of the recession. Affleck does get an offer out of the blue, takes time off and raises the money for the flight only to find the appointment is arranged for the following week and the film gives the impression that for this and other reasons he gives the interview a miss.
The position of Tommy Lee Jones is different. For him the issue is not one of money or lifestyle as such or having a job per se but the end of something which he had made his life’s work and which provided incomes for a large workforce. It is evident he has become detached from his wife and family and prefers the company of his mistress who work as the Human Sources Director and it is her job to work out who should go in as fair a way as possible within he financial parameters and need to retain those who are able to take the organisation forward.
Jones put up a fight for another older colleague in his 50’s who he has no since working together on the shipyard floor. When the man is unable to cope and commits suicide it brings home to everyone the cost of what is happening and significantly the CEO does not attend the funeral. Eventually his mistress also arises to advise him of his own separation package as further cuts are made and the impact of this is for him to leave home and move in with his mistress who is still employed by the corporation,
It after the funeral that Jones takes Affleck to the site of the original but now derelict ship yard and administration offices and talks about the past. Once he realises his share capital which presumably also runs into the hundreds of millions he established his own company with and appropriate front office but we then see Affleck leaving for work in the old yard offices with a small team all colleagues from the job search bureau telling them to hire 100 of the former team trade union consultations and in the harbour a tug is moving in a vessel for refit and repair.
The film could be said to provide in dramatic form the reality of the recession and changing industrial and manufacturing condition but also the messages that if you have any job you should be grateful and accept whatever conditions and restrictions are imposed and that if you work hard and are prepared to risk capital then the American dream lives on. In effect it is an endorsement of capitalism and corporate behaviour rather than a condemnation. I have in mind the original Wall Street in this respect.
There were aspects of State of Grace that I remember from before, and is the film which I suggest made Sean Penn an international star and which also featured Ed Harris and Gary Oldman.
The clever opening of the film gives the impression that Terry Noonan born in New York’s Hells kitchen is forced to return from Boston where he had acquired a gun and is involved with a shoot out killing two gangsters in a drugs and money venture. Later we learn that the drug sellers were police wearing vests and with gun firing blanks. The third party at the scene guaranteeing that the authenticity of the incident will be passed on within the criminal underworld.
Terry returns to his roots and re-establishes contact with his childhood friend Jackie played by Gary Oldman whose elder brother (Ed Harris) runs the local Irish Mobsters and their sister Kathleen with whom they were young lovers and where he is surprised she remains unmarried and living in the district.
She has distanced herself from the criminal life of her brothers and is disappointed to find that Terry is involved with them again although their original love is rekindled. This poses a problem for Terry who is in fact undertaking an undercover assignment as member of the police. When under pressure he reveals his identity the girl reacts with horror appreciating that his purpose is to place her brothers in prison.
Jackie, the young brother is a hot head and ambitious to prove himself. Jackie is horrified when a friend is murdered and he believes by the Italian Mafia although in fact it is his brother who carried out the killing in order to make peace with the Mafia. When Jackie encounters three members of the Mafia in a bar one evening there is a fight in which he kills all three. This leads to a sit down meeting between the two heads of families and Frankie (; the gang leader takes the precaution of having the rest of the gang on standby. The deal is for Frankie to kill his brother.
Terry accompanies Jackie to collect $25000 which the brother has requested because he senses that Jackie is under threat. When they are sent to a different location to that where Terry had ranged back up forces Jackie is killed by his brother unseen by Terry who is trying to phone for help.
Much of the film centres on the build up to the annual St Patrick’s Day parade and the sister is left to watch the parade on her own while Frankie and the gang learn that Terry is an undercover cop at a bar. Terry arrives and there is a shoot out when finally Terry and Frankie confront each other. Frankie is shot dead and Terry is shot three times and falls. The film ends without knowing if he survives.
I was impressed by the performances of all three principal actors especially Gary Oldman.
The Seeker, the Dark is Rising is fantasy film involving young people based on the second of five book series by Susan Cooper. The films is self contained so that knowledge of the books would have added to enjoyment but is not essential.
Will Stanton believes he is the youngest of six sons and a sister in a family who live in an unusually designed house in a country town. just outside greater London. He, his sister and older brothers are excited as they leave school for the start of the Christmas holiday which is also the time of his birthday.
He notes a girl on the bus who appears interested in him and when she leaves the bus without scarf he tries to attract her attention and failing this takes hold of the scarf. The girl appears older. All the members of the family are reunited with the exception of one son who is in the Navy and who contacts via the internet video link. The return of another son results in Will being sent up to the attic as a temporary bedroom. The brothers are normal young men. His father appears self absorbed and troubled.
On their way home the Lady of the Manor and her assistant (Ian McShane) invite the young people to a Christmas Party and two local farmers who are undertaking some work on a building comment about the weather while appearing to be keeping the boy under surveillance.
His little sister is the only one of the siblings to provide him with a good birthday present so he goes to the local shopping centre to buy her a gift and buys an unusual stone pendant for her. He is approached by two men dressed as security guards who claim he has stolen the item and they quickly emerge not to be what they seem but somehow he manages to escape their clutches with the emergence of latent powers which make him feel odd and different. When he tries to explain his concerns to his father these are dismissed as adolescent problems which he should discuss with his older brothers.
At the Christmas party at he Manor House Will sees the girl from the bus and is upset when an older brother cuts him out and arranges to date the girl. There is discussion between the Lady of the Manor, McShane and the two farmers whether it is time to explain to Will his position and destiny. They decide to hold back as the boy is troubled but when he leaves he is chased by two ferocious black dogs and a rider on horseback, played by Christopher Eccleston of Dr Who fame and also the classical theatre actor.
The four from the Manor have followed and intervene. The Dark rider demands possession of objects which he believes Will has and which could prevent him rising to great power in the world within five days. The four escort Will through time to what is a great Hall and in present time the Church which the family worship. They explain that they are the last of the old ones. Will is the last of the Old Ones and the one who can stop the Rider as the seventh son of the seventh son.
I knew a family of seven sons of seven sons as well as my own ancestors one of whom the grandfather of my mother was the sixth of seven sons all born in succession. The family I knew were political and I have his painting of Durham Cathedral in my home created by one.
In the film and book Will explains that he is the youngest of six and not seven, a fact which he establishes is not so when he returns home and learns that he had a twin brother who disappeared and which the parents have been unable to talk about since.
The four explain to Will the nature of powers as the trheyr commence on his fourteenth birthday and in order to stop the Dark he must quickly locate the six signs which the Dark is also after to stop him. Will falls and twists his ankle on returning home the doctor who calls is none other that the Dark demanding the Signs and threatening the rest of he family if he refuses to join him.
Will is instructed in the extent of his powers which include summoning great strength to combat forces assembled against him and which involves control of light and fire, telekinesis, time travel and the ability to decipher an ancient text, The Book of Gramarye.
He returns to Great Hall to learn the nature of the Signs, one of which is the pendant he acquired for his sister on the visit to the Shopping Mall and which the men from whom he escaped were after. It is around this time that we learn that the girl on the bus and who became the girl friend of an older brother is in fact a witch working for the Rider in exchange for her remaining a youthful beauty. Will has to use his powers to prevent the influence of the witch over his family. Eventually despite his emotional attachment to the witch in the form of the girl he is able to break her power and she becomes her true age and appears to disintegrate.
As the struggle between the two intensifies the Rider launches an attack on the village and the family home with a great blizzard and extreme cold. Will then faces his greatest challenge as the Rider impersonates his father and mother and offers to reunite with his twin if he surrenders powers. In addition to the pendant he has worked out that that the second is a skull of the creator of the signs inside the church/great Hall from the 14 century. There is Viking Shield used to attack village which he is able to acquire by trading the watch given to him by his sister for his birthday. The is a feather on the sign of the local Inn which dates from the late 17th century and when the Manor is underwater when the snow turn to water and he ends the life and power of the witch. The final sign is the power within himself his soul.
Having understood the signs he becomes untouchable and is able to rescue his twin brother who the Rider had mistook for Will and imprisoned in glass sphere and which in turn Will now imprisons the Rider, returning to his family with his twin brother.
I have no information if there are to be other films. It is noteworthy that there are similarities between Will and Harry Potter with both boys unaware of their powers and their destiny against he forces of the dark until had there childhood and adolescences is over. Both have supernatural powers as the forces aligned against them and both have those who, understand and support. However the way the stories have been brought to life, and the level of acting and the concept of using the same trio of Harry and his two friends is difference between on become an internal legend with incredible financial success and the other comparatively unknown.
Talking of Harry Potter it is noteworthy that the completion of his film series failed to get recognition at him Oscars in the same way that recognition was given to the Lord of Rings. And talking of the Lord of the Rings the first of at least two Hobbit films appears on screen later this year in time for Christmas and in 3D.
I was pleased with outcome in that the awful but much hyped Tinker Tailor with Gary Oldman in for best male actor came nowhere as at he Baftas and Meryil Streep deservedly gained her third Oscar for the performance as Mrs Thatcher. One hostile critic argued that this was a mimic performance which indicates his ignorance or dubious bias or both. She paid due credit to make up who also got an award.
As also forecast the Artist got Best Picture, Best Direction and Best male artist plus two others, five of the ten nominations and although I have stubbornly refused to view the film in theatre, I look forward to the televised production in a year’s time. Similarly I will view the Help which gained the best supporting as at the Baftas together with the Descendents where George Clooney has been much praised and Brad Pitt for Moneyball about baseball which I have never taken to although made several efforts, The Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris and Hugo are also on the list and perhaps Warhorse and Extremely Loud and Incredibility Clear.
Apparently despite the hundreds of millions reported to be viewing the event world wide the USA audience finished last year to just above the Emmy’s at around 40 million so for this season every effort was made to make the show more attractive and hold viewers. There were several innovations with instead of photographs and excerpts for In Memoriam were simple cards although departing members of academy were given more attention. There appeared to be fewer movie snap shots ands these were grouped with the awards. There was tribute to the history of film and to three previous recipients previously unable to be present who sat together in a side box.
The nice award of the evening went to Christopher Plummer who beat Max Von Sydow (who got the Bafta) for best supporting actor in a male role and who commented that there was only a couple of years between him and the years of the Oscars with both in their 80’s. Max is only a year or to younger and the two men have over 150 years of life experience. Three cheers for the oldies.
Now to my recent film viewing and first a repeat of film seen in theatre in 1999 and since on TV: American Beauty with two actors who never fail to give A class performances Kevin Spacey and Angela Bening. The film won Oscar Best Picture, Best Direction for Sam Members Best Actor of Spacey, Best original Screenplay and Best cinema photography.
First my take on the film which I regard as a fair and good account of that point in a marriage when periodic sex, however good, is not sufficient cement to prevent both partners remembering and wanting to recapture past experience, assuming it was better or panicking that they will miss out on what they believe others imply is better. In addition and argued more important is when one or both lose respect for the other and the values they have developed.
Bening has become a consumer queen, protective of the expensive goods she has surrounded herself to advertise who she was and critical of Spacey’s failure to want and achieve more. She is a property real estate agent and admires the local Mr Success man despite the fact that he is a class A shit. Eventually she balls him to her great personal satisfaction and then is distraught when he finds the excuse to reject her all too common experience which goes on in many a marriage, almost unnoticed. However this is a side show to the life Kevin leads.
Kevin Spacey is Lester a middle aged magazine writer a job he has come to loathe. When he about to be sacked he is able to blackmail his way to a $60000 pay off which buys him time to work out what to do. (The subject of what happens to high earners when they are laid off will be covered at an entirely different level of seriousness in Company Men which is to follow and which was also the subject of the George Clooney film Up in the Air where he flew around America getting rid of executives).
When Lester’s cash begins to run out and he becomes bored with doing nothing he remembers how much he enjoyed working at in a fast food restaurant but has to talk himself into getting a job because of his age and previous job levels. He is very satisfied by the work which leads him to finding our about his wife’s infidelity when she arrives in the drive in lane with the lover.
However Lester’s attention is elsewhere. He is persuaded to attend his daughter’s high school where she is a cheerleader basketball game he is attention is caught by the sixteen year old best friend of his daughter who is clearly glittered by his attention. She is sixteen to make it legal for most USA and Western audiences but in reality n she could have been any age from fourteen to twenty to make the same point.
She gives the impression of being highly experienced sexually, attracted to older men and ridicules the virginity of the daughter who is a young woman with low self esteem. The two frequently spar over the subject and the daughter Jane who becomes the subject of interest to the son of a retired Marine Colonel who has moved in next door, finds the way her father and friend interact as gross.
Lester begins to lust after the beautiful creature which the camera is always surrounding with bright red rose petals to emphasise the romantic as well as sexual attraction (I know it also a take on the suburban concept of American Beauty). His interest is fired when he overhears a conversation between daughter and friend in which Angela says she would be interested in him if only he worked out and got into better shape. This provides Lester with a mission so he starts to work out.
Lester also makes friends his daughter’s friend who although on probation for alleged drug use is in fact the neighbourhood supplier of good stuff marijuana. Ricky only deals to provide funds for his hobby which is film and photography and the room is filled with tapes with his favourite which he views on TV that of a white plastic bag floating and which he shares with Jane.
Unfortunately as it transpires he unintentionally films Kevin working out naked that his father sees and then when he goes over to the gym to provide a new supply of stuff, his father misjudges what he can see as a gay relationship. When he confronts his son, the son who is fed up with living at home does not deny the charge as a means of being thrown out and providing the impetus for his ambition to go and live in New York. He has no difficulty in persuading Jane to go with him.
Jane has criticised Angela for her interest in Lester and Ricky tells her that she is ordinary. Angela is left alone in the house with Lester and makes a play for him. On the bed ready to give her she discloses that she is a virgin and hopes he will not be disappointed. This jolts Kevin into the reality of the situation and although she feels she is being rejected he is able to comfort in a fatherly way and the two bond despite the gulf in experience and perspectives.
The problem is that the Marine Colonel is closet gay and full of passion comes over to Lester and kisses him. Rejected he returns home in a disturbed state.
We are told early on in the film that this is night when the life of Lester ends and in the film is his all of life flashback in those self aware moments before death. We see him in a pool of vivid blood and hear him saying that he has no regrets as to how his life ended. The film is ambiguous over who shoots Lester with the most likely the colonel as we see one of his guns missing while the wife who is just as disturbed after her rejection is also returning home with a gun placed in the glove compartment.
So from my perspective American Beauty is film which should be judged as a glossy story with good acting and great photography set in suburban middle class America but others have elevated to a different level about notions of beauty, romantic and parental loves as well as sexuality. It is also about the impact of consumerism and materialism and alienation which many come to feel in middle age coming up and immediately after retirement, plus ways of achieving self liberation and redemption. In fairness it is all the latter dressed up and softened in such a way to provide weekend entertainment and challenge rather than attack its audience with perhaps the Middle America tea party value that even to lust after something or someone has a price in the present as well as the afterlife.
The focal point can be said to be the sequence of the paper bag. It is only in a comfortable middle and upper class society that a mini film about a floating paper bag can be considered art or entertaining when for billions of people in the world the challenge and is sufficient food and water, avoiding mortal sickness and the rape and slaughter by ones neighbours or government.
The company man is about the effects of ruthless corporate capitalism in the changing global economy and recession. The Chairman/Chief Executive manages to take home $22 million in the year in which he is required to down size in order to raise the share price in the face of a take over threat. He gives the impression of wanting to stay on at the head of the company he has built with right hand man and deputy, Gene LcClary played by the great Tommy Lee Jones. When all his down sizing fails and the company is acquired he nets $600 million from his stock options.
Tommy Lee helped build up the company from the ship building and repair division which take the brunt of the initial cost cutting because it is an area where the world market had changed, Among those who go in the first tranch is head sales man Bobby Walker played by Ben Affleck.
He is as self confident and often distant from his wife and children because of the requirements of the job, enjoying his fast car and condescending towards his brother in law who runs a small four man businesses repairing buildings. When he is suddenly told he is laid off with a severance package which involve placement with a job finding agency he is sufficiently self confident to tell his wife (who immediately understand the implications) that they can continue with their lifestyle and that the news should be kept from their children, his parents and her brother. He slowly learns the reality of the position and eventually is driven to accepting a labouring job with his brother in law and to moving in with his parents. He is humiliated and depressed but his wife comments that when he comes home now he is with them and he is able to spend time with his children, The film depicts something of the life led by those with the job search agency and the bond which develops between them. The brother in law is played by an aging Kevin Costner who had his own problems keeping the business afloat working all hours but this is normal way of life made more difficult because of the recession. Affleck does get an offer out of the blue, takes time off and raises the money for the flight only to find the appointment is arranged for the following week and the film gives the impression that for this and other reasons he gives the interview a miss.
The position of Tommy Lee Jones is different. For him the issue is not one of money or lifestyle as such or having a job per se but the end of something which he had made his life’s work and which provided incomes for a large workforce. It is evident he has become detached from his wife and family and prefers the company of his mistress who work as the Human Sources Director and it is her job to work out who should go in as fair a way as possible within he financial parameters and need to retain those who are able to take the organisation forward.
Jones put up a fight for another older colleague in his 50’s who he has no since working together on the shipyard floor. When the man is unable to cope and commits suicide it brings home to everyone the cost of what is happening and significantly the CEO does not attend the funeral. Eventually his mistress also arises to advise him of his own separation package as further cuts are made and the impact of this is for him to leave home and move in with his mistress who is still employed by the corporation,
It after the funeral that Jones takes Affleck to the site of the original but now derelict ship yard and administration offices and talks about the past. Once he realises his share capital which presumably also runs into the hundreds of millions he established his own company with and appropriate front office but we then see Affleck leaving for work in the old yard offices with a small team all colleagues from the job search bureau telling them to hire 100 of the former team trade union consultations and in the harbour a tug is moving in a vessel for refit and repair.
The film could be said to provide in dramatic form the reality of the recession and changing industrial and manufacturing condition but also the messages that if you have any job you should be grateful and accept whatever conditions and restrictions are imposed and that if you work hard and are prepared to risk capital then the American dream lives on. In effect it is an endorsement of capitalism and corporate behaviour rather than a condemnation. I have in mind the original Wall Street in this respect.
There were aspects of State of Grace that I remember from before, and is the film which I suggest made Sean Penn an international star and which also featured Ed Harris and Gary Oldman.
The clever opening of the film gives the impression that Terry Noonan born in New York’s Hells kitchen is forced to return from Boston where he had acquired a gun and is involved with a shoot out killing two gangsters in a drugs and money venture. Later we learn that the drug sellers were police wearing vests and with gun firing blanks. The third party at the scene guaranteeing that the authenticity of the incident will be passed on within the criminal underworld.
Terry returns to his roots and re-establishes contact with his childhood friend Jackie played by Gary Oldman whose elder brother (Ed Harris) runs the local Irish Mobsters and their sister Kathleen with whom they were young lovers and where he is surprised she remains unmarried and living in the district.
She has distanced herself from the criminal life of her brothers and is disappointed to find that Terry is involved with them again although their original love is rekindled. This poses a problem for Terry who is in fact undertaking an undercover assignment as member of the police. When under pressure he reveals his identity the girl reacts with horror appreciating that his purpose is to place her brothers in prison.
Jackie, the young brother is a hot head and ambitious to prove himself. Jackie is horrified when a friend is murdered and he believes by the Italian Mafia although in fact it is his brother who carried out the killing in order to make peace with the Mafia. When Jackie encounters three members of the Mafia in a bar one evening there is a fight in which he kills all three. This leads to a sit down meeting between the two heads of families and Frankie (; the gang leader takes the precaution of having the rest of the gang on standby. The deal is for Frankie to kill his brother.
Terry accompanies Jackie to collect $25000 which the brother has requested because he senses that Jackie is under threat. When they are sent to a different location to that where Terry had ranged back up forces Jackie is killed by his brother unseen by Terry who is trying to phone for help.
Much of the film centres on the build up to the annual St Patrick’s Day parade and the sister is left to watch the parade on her own while Frankie and the gang learn that Terry is an undercover cop at a bar. Terry arrives and there is a shoot out when finally Terry and Frankie confront each other. Frankie is shot dead and Terry is shot three times and falls. The film ends without knowing if he survives.
I was impressed by the performances of all three principal actors especially Gary Oldman.
The Seeker, the Dark is Rising is fantasy film involving young people based on the second of five book series by Susan Cooper. The films is self contained so that knowledge of the books would have added to enjoyment but is not essential.
Will Stanton believes he is the youngest of six sons and a sister in a family who live in an unusually designed house in a country town. just outside greater London. He, his sister and older brothers are excited as they leave school for the start of the Christmas holiday which is also the time of his birthday.
He notes a girl on the bus who appears interested in him and when she leaves the bus without scarf he tries to attract her attention and failing this takes hold of the scarf. The girl appears older. All the members of the family are reunited with the exception of one son who is in the Navy and who contacts via the internet video link. The return of another son results in Will being sent up to the attic as a temporary bedroom. The brothers are normal young men. His father appears self absorbed and troubled.
On their way home the Lady of the Manor and her assistant (Ian McShane) invite the young people to a Christmas Party and two local farmers who are undertaking some work on a building comment about the weather while appearing to be keeping the boy under surveillance.
His little sister is the only one of the siblings to provide him with a good birthday present so he goes to the local shopping centre to buy her a gift and buys an unusual stone pendant for her. He is approached by two men dressed as security guards who claim he has stolen the item and they quickly emerge not to be what they seem but somehow he manages to escape their clutches with the emergence of latent powers which make him feel odd and different. When he tries to explain his concerns to his father these are dismissed as adolescent problems which he should discuss with his older brothers.
At the Christmas party at he Manor House Will sees the girl from the bus and is upset when an older brother cuts him out and arranges to date the girl. There is discussion between the Lady of the Manor, McShane and the two farmers whether it is time to explain to Will his position and destiny. They decide to hold back as the boy is troubled but when he leaves he is chased by two ferocious black dogs and a rider on horseback, played by Christopher Eccleston of Dr Who fame and also the classical theatre actor.
The four from the Manor have followed and intervene. The Dark rider demands possession of objects which he believes Will has and which could prevent him rising to great power in the world within five days. The four escort Will through time to what is a great Hall and in present time the Church which the family worship. They explain that they are the last of the old ones. Will is the last of the Old Ones and the one who can stop the Rider as the seventh son of the seventh son.
I knew a family of seven sons of seven sons as well as my own ancestors one of whom the grandfather of my mother was the sixth of seven sons all born in succession. The family I knew were political and I have his painting of Durham Cathedral in my home created by one.
In the film and book Will explains that he is the youngest of six and not seven, a fact which he establishes is not so when he returns home and learns that he had a twin brother who disappeared and which the parents have been unable to talk about since.
The four explain to Will the nature of powers as the trheyr commence on his fourteenth birthday and in order to stop the Dark he must quickly locate the six signs which the Dark is also after to stop him. Will falls and twists his ankle on returning home the doctor who calls is none other that the Dark demanding the Signs and threatening the rest of he family if he refuses to join him.
Will is instructed in the extent of his powers which include summoning great strength to combat forces assembled against him and which involves control of light and fire, telekinesis, time travel and the ability to decipher an ancient text, The Book of Gramarye.
He returns to Great Hall to learn the nature of the Signs, one of which is the pendant he acquired for his sister on the visit to the Shopping Mall and which the men from whom he escaped were after. It is around this time that we learn that the girl on the bus and who became the girl friend of an older brother is in fact a witch working for the Rider in exchange for her remaining a youthful beauty. Will has to use his powers to prevent the influence of the witch over his family. Eventually despite his emotional attachment to the witch in the form of the girl he is able to break her power and she becomes her true age and appears to disintegrate.
As the struggle between the two intensifies the Rider launches an attack on the village and the family home with a great blizzard and extreme cold. Will then faces his greatest challenge as the Rider impersonates his father and mother and offers to reunite with his twin if he surrenders powers. In addition to the pendant he has worked out that that the second is a skull of the creator of the signs inside the church/great Hall from the 14 century. There is Viking Shield used to attack village which he is able to acquire by trading the watch given to him by his sister for his birthday. The is a feather on the sign of the local Inn which dates from the late 17th century and when the Manor is underwater when the snow turn to water and he ends the life and power of the witch. The final sign is the power within himself his soul.
Having understood the signs he becomes untouchable and is able to rescue his twin brother who the Rider had mistook for Will and imprisoned in glass sphere and which in turn Will now imprisons the Rider, returning to his family with his twin brother.
I have no information if there are to be other films. It is noteworthy that there are similarities between Will and Harry Potter with both boys unaware of their powers and their destiny against he forces of the dark until had there childhood and adolescences is over. Both have supernatural powers as the forces aligned against them and both have those who, understand and support. However the way the stories have been brought to life, and the level of acting and the concept of using the same trio of Harry and his two friends is difference between on become an internal legend with incredible financial success and the other comparatively unknown.
Talking of Harry Potter it is noteworthy that the completion of his film series failed to get recognition at him Oscars in the same way that recognition was given to the Lord of Rings. And talking of the Lord of the Rings the first of at least two Hobbit films appears on screen later this year in time for Christmas and in 3D.
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