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Rambo: Last Blood (2019)
End of the Innocence
Unexpectedly riveting and very well acted, this film swings the pendulum from family bliss to phantasmagoric brutality when emotionally tortured John Rambo, robbed of all innocence by the horrors of the Vietnam War, experiences even greater horror when his beloved ward, Gabriela (portrayed convincingly by the beautiful Yvette Monreal), falls victim to Mexican sex merchants and succumbs to the trauma of drug overdose and physical abuse. The audience witnesses true pathos in the scene of a dying, innocent beauty shedding a tear of farewell as her life slips away while lying next to her tragic hero on their way back to the relative safety of Arizona. The graphic depiction of Rambo's subsequent revenge upon the guilty parties goes above and beyond what this reviewer ever wished to see...and now can't un-see. "Rambo: Last Blood" so well depicts a man yearning for innocence lost that the audience, too, surrenders a degree of innocence in seeing it. Stallone has made a film both disturbing and compelling.
Behold a Pale Horse (1964)
Delayed Gratification and Worth the Wait
Criticisms of the slow-pace of BEHOLD A PALE HORSE fall in line with complaints of the lack of twist-off caps on fine bottles of wine. If patience has no virtue, you won't enjoy this film. Zinnemann's nuanced layering of mood, theme, and character requires appreciation of things developed over time.
A vintage rarely tasted these days (to further exploit the wine motif), Zinnemann shot this film in black-and-white, and it only enhances the shading of elements. The effect gives it a look concomitant with its complex characters who go through the angst of spiritual and emotional transformation. And the cast had to delight in Zinnemann's decision to let them exercise their art: acting. Imagine Atticus Finch telling Jem to shut up and then slapping the lad "upside the head." Yet here's good-guy Peck abandoning type and stepping into the character of Artiguez, an angry man who delivers such a blow to a boy (about Jem's age), knocking him down onto the street.
BEHOLD A PALE HORSE delivers so much more than most films in that it compliments the entire palate of the viewer's intellect. That makes for a very good film. That takes time.
The Edge (1997)
The Lesson
A good number of people criticize THE EDGE for its implausibility when set against actual wilderness survival, and I agree with them on that point. Taken as allegory, however, the film gains validity.
Charles Morse, a billionaire with encyclopedic general knowledge, ostensibly has everything, including a beautiful young wife, Mickey, a fashion model, whom he truly loves. Disquiet haunts him, however, because his wealth impoverishes him of trust in others; people only seem to want him for either his money or his woman.
Deftly utilizing symbolism, the director, Mamet, sets Charles and his wife's photo entourage in an Alaskan wilderness. Bob Green, a photographer having an affair with Mickey, convinces Charles to accompany him and an assistant on an adventure into the forest for a photograph of an unself-conscious man--the non-narcissistic opposite of Bob himself. Things go awry quickly: Geese collide in midair with the float plane, and it crashes into a remote lake. The pilot dies, but the others survive. Unfortunately, they are lost with virtually no hope of rescue. A grizzly bear, used as a symbol of man's primal fear, stalks and attacks the threesome, killing one. Charles and Bob Green remain, and Charles goes on to commit the "unequivocal" act of killing the bear by his own devices, i.e., his wits and a spear, thereby symbolically overcoming his inner demons. He and Bob then journey along a river to a point of departure from the forest. They come upon a cabin and canoe, and their salvation appears imminent.
Realizing that Bob no longer needs him for survival purposes, Charles surmises that Bob (whom he learns is his wife's secret lover by virtue of the signed inscription of "For All The Nights" on Bob's wrist watch) plots to murder Charles in the wilderness and then run off with boodle and booty. Using his wits and knowledge again, however, Charles foils the younger Bob who accidentally inflicts a fatal wound on himself in the murder attempt. Bob dies from loss of blood but not before repenting of his sins--an uplifting scene that shows our desire to seek and our ability to grant forgiveness.
A patrolling helicopter rescues Charles, and he arrives back at the Alaskan resort where, in passing, he repeats a theme of the film by asking the innkeeper: "Why is the rabbit not afraid?" To which he receives the reply: "Because he's smarter than the panther." Charles presents Bob's watch to his waiting wife, thereby communicating his knowledge of her unfaithfulness. The viewer, however, gets the impression that she, too, seeks forgiveness and that he would grant it again. When asked by a reporter how his friends died, he answers cryptically, "They died saving my life."
THE LESSON would have been a more appropriate title for this very worthwhile film. Don't seek realism here but do seek reality. Allegory often serves that pursuit more aptly.
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Our Dual Natures Served Up Hollywood Style
John Landis reveals a philosophical take on mankind in this film, namely, that we have two natures: one benign, one monstrous. The werewolf legend handily serves as that proposition's allegorical vehicle, and compared to the alluded-to Nazi atrocities in two scenes, the legend actually pales. Sadly, under the dark impetus of our arrogance and vanity, our metaphorical "full moon", man is perfectly capable of transforming into nightmarish beast.
As a director, Landis approaches Hitchcock in terms of scene economy and symbolism. For example, the opening sequence set on the moors of northern England features the tragic hero David and his friend Jack climbing out of the bed of a truck laden with sheep - benign animals destined for slaughter. Biped "sheep" David and Jack meander to "The Slaughtered Lamb", a pub sheltering cowering, xenophobic locals from the monster afoot on the moors during full moon. Soon the inhospitality of the town folk compels the two lambs to leave - virtually sending them to their slaughter.
And so it goes throughout this brilliant film. Without revealing the ending, it can be stated that Landis makes his case against the idea that love conquers all; instead, he suggests that love only gives the beast within us pause.
Beware the moon.