DeNiro Being Funny

Maybe You've Never Seen Him Like This

Robert DeNiro is the best. In my opinion, he took what Brando invented to another level. He made the animalistic, naturalness terrifying. I don't think there's ever been an actor who has been less afraid to be unlikeable. Even beyond unlikeable...irredeemable.

But...that's not what I want to show you. I think most people, when they think of DeNiro, think of a mob guy. Slick and ice cold. But, still fairly early on, he and Scorsese decided to change it up. Not many people my age know of or appreciate The King of Comedy, but it's awesome.

DeNiro is hilarious, but his comedic turn is so unique to his style. He's funny because he's so unfunny. It's probably the most excruciating character to follow for an entire film...ever. Yet, it works. It's a testament to the power of DeNiro to somehow keep it together and, of course, to the power of Scorsese to take this comedy to some pretty dark places.

Great, fast, funny and irritating...a Scorsese/DeNiro comedy.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wVhCCo02P4

Old School

Staaaaaaaaallone!

Ok...some people hate these types of movies. By types, I mean 80s action movies. The Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Van Damme, Chuck Norris stuff. I love it, proudly.

This is a gem. Stallone plays a nice guy in a country club-style jail for an act of rage years ago, in response to a father-figure being beaten up badly. However, an old enemy played by Donald Sutherland, who Stallone humiliated by escaping from his prison in the past, is now warden of a nasty prison and he gets Stallone into his hellhole.

That's the plot, but it's Stallone's classic 80s hero, the convict that you pull for, that sets this apart. The twists are surprisingly touching (First Base's killing will piss you off) and there's some nice support from Sutherland and Tom Sizemore.

Here's a classic scene...the football game. They used real prisoners from the location where they filmed, Rahway prison. Check it out...nasty scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ5TwKApFC4

Awesome Site

Great Link:

http://spectrumculture.com/2012/10/re-makere-model-rio-bravo-1959-vs-assault-on-precinct-13-1976.html/

I'm sharing this link above for a great site and article comparing Howard Hawks and John Carpenter. Carpenter is an admitted fan of Hawks. The Thing is a remake of Hawk's The Thing From Another World. However, it's Rio Bravo that seems to have most influence over Carpenter's films.

Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, a cult-classic now, was pretty much a re-telling of Bravo. It changed the Wild West setting, switching it to LA of 1976, a form of a wild west all it's own. The story finds a group of people bunkered down in an abandoned police station, surrounded by a gang of maniacs who've already killed a little girl in a shocking opening scene. The group must work together to survive.

It's a simple story and provides a structure that Carpenter would recycle many times, in different variations. Anyway, check it out...great article.

Unexpected The Whole Way

The GOAT

Taxi Driver is the greatest movie ever made, in my opinion. I'll be adding more and more about Scorsese as I go along, but for now, I just wanted to talk about the scene in Taxi Driver, the massacre.

Up until this point, the story has been all over. DeNiro's Travis Bickle started out quirky, funny and seemingly harmless. He tried to get a girlfriend and it's all fallen apart and now he's made himself into a machine. No longer harmless, but weird, detached and dangerous. It's a wild transformation and maybe DeNiro's greatest ever.

This scene is amazing. The movie becomes a straight-up horror film. It's terrifying, but more than the blood, it's Bickle's behavior. His decision to sit for a couple seconds after killing Keitel on the street. His failed attempts at suicide after the massacre. It's all so weird and happenstance, which is what makes it real.

If you haven't seen this movie...Come the hell on man...

The Massacre:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CImWc7og28

The Ultimate Battle

It's Called The Exorcist not the Exorcee

When I think of The Exorcist, like anybody else, I think of the girl's head spinning around, green vomit, and the most disturbing uses of a crucifix that you'll ever care to imagine. However, now that I'm a little older, I can get past some of the more gory, shock-value type stuff to the subtext of the story...and it's goooooood.

Watch the movie and pay attention to the young priest, Damien Karras, and his story. Again, you tend to get caught up in Reagan's story, after all she is the one being possessed, but the heart of the story belongs to Karras. He is struggling with his faith and haunted by the fact that he must put his mother into a home, against her wishes. The demon uses this to taunt him during the exorcism, but he prevails, by taking the demon into his own body and jumping, headfirst, out the window to his death.

His friend, another priest, comes and reads him his last rites. It's a heavy scene, but a scene after all this when Reagan, upon seeing the priest's collar as they say goodbye, gives him a hug, is even heavier. It's not only touching, but also seems to add to the feeling that this was just a small part of the never-ending battle between good and evil.

The older priest, with all his worldly knowledge, couldn't handle the exorcism, but this local priest, struggling with his faith, endures and prevails. It's also telling that he's an ex-boxer, born, perhaps, for this fight.

Heavy stuff...revisit this and pay attention...it's better than you think.

The Ending:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XcX5dG4eJ4

Slickness

A Little More Mann

I’m a huge Michael Mann fan, as you can probably tell. Talking about Manhunter got me thinking about some other key scenes to share. I’m linking a couple..check them out.

This first one isn’t actually a movie, it’s from the pilot for Miami Vice, the TV show not the movie version. I think this scene is classic 80s and sums up Mann’s obsession with undercover cops and the idea of them getting in too deep and needing reassurance of what’s real. The song doesn’t hurt...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1o-NWNmQLM

This is a scene from Thief, Mann’s early feature. James Caan plays an ex-con, out and back doing jobs as a professional thief. He has a plan to get out, but this scene, and more importantly, the way Caan delivers the dialogue, gives you a good idea of his no non-sense approach. He seems to have wasted all the time he cares to and it’s all precious from here on out. It’s also an early indication of Mann’s fascination with people on the outskirts of society, trying to find some type of normalcy. Another kick-ass 80s movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfetsPmDWAk

The Mann

The Original Hannibal Movie

Some people love The Silence of the Lambs, and I'm not saying it's a bad movie, it just pisses me off that it's thought of as the definitive Hannibal Lecktor movie...it's not. MANHUNTER is the original, and best, by far in my opinion.

It's an 80s movie, a defining one, and it's also one of Michael Mann's earliest and best films. It follows the story from Harris' Red Dragon novel, but is far superior to the remake adaptation. From the chilling opening - in which we follow the POV of a home invader as he makes his way up and into a couple's bedroom, and just as the woman is awakened by a light and sits up to see who is in her room, we cut away - this movie grabs you.

William Petersen gives his best performance ever as Will Graham, the detective who must get into the state of mind of a psycho killer to catch him. The soundtrack is so 80s and Mann's stylistic use of color, lighting, and frame composition is amazing.

It's simply one of the coolest, most chilling movies ever made. Get ready for the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida explosive ending.

Now check out one of the slickest scenes ever. Graham gets friggin' pissed and then proceeds to put all the pieces together. It gives you a good idea of the subtext and slow burn of this film and Michael Mann in general...The dragon rampant...It's just you and me now sport....so good....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcPemp1-t-Y

Director Gone Roeg

An Underrated Filmmaker

Nicolas Roeg fits the term underrated as well as anyone I can think of. Not many younger people would even recognize his name and it isn't usually included on the list of the greats from the era, but make no mistake, he is one of 'em.

I learned he worked on Lawrence of Arabia, but my first taste of his work was actually Witches, his dark children's movie made relatively later in his career. I didn't know it was him for a long time after I'd discovered Walkabout and Don't Look Now, some of his more famous work. 

These films, and others like Bad Timing, Insignificance, and The Man Who Fell To Earth are the kinds of movies that must be experienced individually. They're difficult to explain. He moves from complex, unusual plots like the dreamlike story in Insignificance, which finds Marilyn Monroe talking physics with Albert Einstein to fairly simple plots like that of Walkabout, where two children must make their way through the Australian Outback with the help of an Aboriginal boy after their father brings them out there and proceeds to commit suicide.

And it's that presentation of harsh, brutal reality that, I think, categorizes Roeg's films. If you feel like everything seems pleasant and nice, don't get too comfortable because somethings about to go down. His overall style as JARRING. He cuts sporadically and inventively and fast. His films seem, at times, incoherent, yet they still carry some type of feeling and emotion. I highly recommend checking out any and all of his work. 

Check out the wild, terrifying opening to Walkabout:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKWARDEyIuk

BTILC

First things first...

If you know what BTILC stands for then you smiled as soon as it came out of your mouth. BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA is the most entertaining movie ever made. I'm not saying it's the greatest film or that it changed the game in some way, but it does everything a movie should do, consistently...it entertains.

If you don't like Kurt Russell for some insane reason, you will after this. He's hilarious. He acts like some truck driver who has just been dropped into some magical underworld of San Francisco's Chinatown and...oh wait...

As a kid, I fell in love with, what else, glowing green lights, magic, and karate fights in alleyways, but now that I'm older, all those things still work except now it also cracks me up throughout. Jack Burton is a legendary character and, if you haven't seen it, do so and you'll be quoting him for the rest of your life.

The action is non-stop. You get fights, Chinese black magic, the journey into the underworld complete with the black blood of the earth...("Don't you mean oil?!"..."I mean black blood of the earth!"). It starts running at the airport and never stops.

Do yourself a favor, check out the trailer, and then check out the movie. It's all in the reflexes. Carpenter is a GOD!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HEitZ06oRY

Whats Up Everybody

Hey everybody,

I'm Garrett and this is a place to talk about the greatest movies ever made...which all happen to have been made in the 70s and 80s, so that's what this will be all about. I'm a huge action and horror fan, but I'm really just a movie lover of any genre.

Great directors must travel in packs because the greatest in history all came onto the scene in the 70s and then continued their work into the 80s. From Scorsese to Carpenter, this blog was created to discuss these filmmakers and their films and to hopefully spread the word to young people about this stuff. These kids don't get how insane these movies are.

Feel free to comment and PLEASE let me know of any gems that I may not know about.