Coluna Claquete - September 26th, 2016 - Movie of the Week: "The Magnificent Seven"

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Movie of the Week: "The Magnificent Seven"

Team that is winning nobody changes. Although this saying comes from football, the cinema incorporated it to the extreme, because remakes and a copies of a famous film will always have a good box office, even if by curiosity. Despite its own merits, this is exactly the case of "The Magnificent Seven" (2016).

To many people the current movie, starred by Denzel Washington, is just the remake of the eponymous film of 1960, which brought together some of the biggest stars in Hollywood at that time. In fact, both were based on the best known film of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, "Seven Samurai" ("Sichinin the Samurai").

The Japanese film, released in 1954, told the story of a small village in Japan of the sixteenth century, which had the threat of attack from a group of brigands, after the harvest period.In desperation, the villagers asked for help to Kambei (Takashi Shimura), a ronin, a samurai without a feudal leader. Touched by the situation of the village, Kambie seeked the help of other warriors like him, with no place in the closed Japanese society because they have no more a master. The newcomers had to deal with the suspicion of the locals, as well as training them to face the bad guys in a wild battle that would reap many lives.

Kurosawa's film had a great impact in the world, even if getting only two Oscar nominations (Art Direction and Costume Design) and three for the BAFTA (Best Film and Foreign Actor to Toshiro Mifune and Takeshi Shimura), winning the Silver Lion of the Venice Film Festival.

Six years later, it was released "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), bringing together the cream of the stars of Hollywood's action movies: Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn and Eli Wallach. The film was directed by John Sturges, veteran in westerns and action films, like "Last Train from Gun Hill", "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral", "Never So Few", and "The Old Man and the Sea".

The story moved to Mexico, where a small town is threatened by the gang led by Calvera (Eli Wallach). Some residents crossed the border to seek help, finding it in Chris (Yul Brynner) and Vin (Steve McQueen). They were two unemployed gunmen who decide to help, not for money but for the adventure, and united other five outlaws.Here too there was doubts and suspicions, but the union prevailed in a terrible and bloody battle against the men of Calvera.

The film was a huge success and spawned a television series of the same name, with Robert Vaughn, one of the film's actors, and three sequences, "Return of the Seven" (1966), "Guns of the Magnificent Seven" (1969) and "The Magnificent Seven Ride" (1972). The same idea was used in many movies, not only westerns but war, medieval, science fiction, and even the famous animated film "A Bug's Life", from Pixar/Disney.

In the current movie, the plot is set in a small rural town where there is a gold mine. The owner of the mine, Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) is not satisfied with his possessions, wanted the property of everything in the region, including the farms around the village.To demonstrate the seriousness of his intentions, he does not hesitate to kill in cold blood unarmed men and women. Finally, he informs that within three weeks he will be back to take possession of it.

Angry with her husband's death, Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) decides to seek for help. With the little money they can collect in the city, she goes in search of gunmen to fight against Bogue. The chance leads her to Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), who decides to accept the challenge, calling other strange men: Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Billy Rocks (Byung-Hun Lee), Jack Home (Vincent D'Onofrio), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and the native Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier).Knowing that the task was almost impossible to seven men only, they need to convince people to fight, training them to do so.

It is curious how the films portrayed the historical moments of the time they were made. "Seven Samurai", released just nine years after the end of World War II, shows a totally marginal world, but where people lived and died by the best values ​​of Japanese culture. The despised class of the villagers is saved by ronins, dishonored samurais, that fighted for what they considered right.

In the 1960's version, the heroes were white and American, while the bad guys were Mexicans.It was odd that even the Mexican member of the group had all the physical characteristics of a Caucasian.Trump would be happy with this release.

In the current version, poetic liberties were taken, as well as "politically correct". The group is more diverse, and among the seven members of the group there are one native, one mexican, one asian and one black, who is the leader of the pack. The villain is no longer a rude Mexican, but a white capitalist. The oppressed people are peasants and mine workers, all exploited by the Capital, the crudest representation of the class struggle.

It is hard to imagine that a black man, at that time, could assume such a prominent position, or a woman, recently widowed, would search for gunmen with a very low-cut clothing.But who wants historical accuracy watches documentaries, not westerns.

The film is technically very well done, with numerous action scenes, and the beautiful landscapes of the Mexican desert. The soundtrack is fantastic, and contains some songs from the 1960 version. The cast is less stellar, and with the exception of Washington and Hawke, the other actors are less well known, although fulfill their function exemplarily.

"The Magnificent Seven" is an interesting and entertaining film, over two hours long, which in addition to honor two great classics of cinema, brings a more tuned pace with current generations.

Original title: "The Magnificent Seven"

Coluna Claquete - September 12, 2016 - Movie of the Week: "The Legend of Tarzan"

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Movie of the Week: "The Legend of Tarzan"

Yesterday, while looking for a movie to fill the lazy Sunday afternoon, I came across this adventure, which passed briefly by cinemas, "The Legend of Tarzan". I am intimate of this character, because I used to read a lot of his books when I was a young boy. So, I was curious to see what else could come up with the hero of the jungle.

Tarzan must be one of the most popular fictional characters in the world since the first book, "Tarzan, the Son of the Jungle" was published in 1912. He was so successful that soon came to the big screen, still silent, in 1918, reaching the comics in 1928. We must remember that both industries were still very young.

This success was repeated over time, and in addition to the 24 books written by Edgar Burroughs Ryce, there are 236 titles cited by IMDB.com site, between movies and episodes of TV series. Not bad for a character created by a writer who never set foot in Africa!

According to the original version, the parents of Tarzan, John Clayton and Alice, were noble English, that during a boat trip were forced to land on the coast of Africa after a mutiny on board. Alice was pregnant and died during childbirth. The boy survived, but then one orangutans gang broke into the hut in which they lived and killed John Clayton father. Kala, a female from the flock whose baby had died, rescued the human boy and took him with her, raising him as her son. The boy was called Tarzan, that meant "white skin" in the language of the monkeys.

Years later, when Tarzan was an adult, he met a group of white men, among whom was his cousin and the one who would be the love of his life, Jane Porter. Several comes and goes happened until the couple stayed together and took their rightful place in the English aristocracy.

Burroughs' imagination, allied with the lack of knowledge about the African continent in the early twentieth century, brought Tarzan to face not only lions and wild natives, as well as Nazi Germans, Roman soldiers, medieval knights, exotic beings like men-ant, prehistoric animals, and even a journey to the Earth's center!

Making a more critical reading, we can see that the character created by Burroughs was the image of the society of his time. The hero was white, of noble birth, and killed wild animals and natives with the same naturalness of one who kills cockroaches.In some parts of the books you can see an undeniable racism, which was a common feature of the time and the environment in which the author lived.

As were made hundreds of movies with Tarzan, it is natural that new situations are created, but in most of the current production there is a shuffling of the characters that would freak out the author himself!

In the current film, Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) is an adult, married and lives in England, where he uses his real name and title, John Clayton III, Lord Greystok.While the original story happened in the early twentieth century, here was a retreat, situating it in 1889.

Another poetic license was taken, making Tarzan's childood happens in the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of Congo). Belgian explorer Leon Rom (Christoph Waltz) is sent by the king of Belgium Leopold II to find the legendary city of Opar, to catch diamonds to finance the mercenaries the king needs to master the colony.The invaders are decimated by the natives, but the king of Opar, Mbonga (Dijimon Hounsou) tells Rom that he will give him many diamonds in exchange of Tarzan.

Rom uses every trick to lure Tarzan to Africa, and our hero accepts the invitation, coming with his wife Jane (Margot Robbie) and an American explorer George Washington Williams (Samuel L. Jackson).

Throughout the film there are several twists before reaching a typical Hollywood ending, which has nothing to do with real History. But the good side is that Tarzan is now very different from the books: he respects nature, is a friend and protector of the natives, and do not kill any animal. I suspect even that he is a vegetarian...

An interesting thing in the film is pointing to a little-known historical fact, the role of King Leopold II in the Congo. Using trade agreements artifices, and later an army of mercenaries, he kept the region as a personal possession, subjecting the inhabitants to slavery with extremely brutal methods, including even amputation of body limbs.It got so bad that in 1908, the Belgian parliament withdrew the region of the king's possession and turned it into a country colony until its independence in 1960.

The cast is good, and does not compromise the story, but is annoying seeing a high level actor like Christoph Waltz making a ridiculous and stereotypical villain. The CGI was used a lot, especially in the preparation of gorillas who raised Tarzan, and this must have consumed a lot of of the $ 180 million of the film's budget.

Although it has many differences from the original version, "The Legend of Tarzan" is an adventure film in today's style with many action scenes and constant twists.You just need to turn off your brain and enjoy it.

Original title: "The Legend of Tarzan"

Coluna Claquete - September 12, 2016 - Movie of the week: "Dirty Hearts"

 

 

Newton Ramalho

 

colunaclaquete@gmail.com - www.colunaclaquete.blogspot.com - @colunaclaquete

 

Movie of the Week: "Dirty Hearts"

In war, truth is the first victim. This quote, attributed to the Greek playwright Aeschylus, seems never lose their validity. In all wars advertising will always be one of the most important weapons, and linked to it, the manipulation of ideas and facts. It was like that with a barely known event in the history of Brazil, that happened after the Second World War, and that only came to light through the beautiful book of Fernando Morais, and Vicente Amorim's film "Dirty Hearts".

Few people know that, although Brazil had never been at war with Japan, immigrants from that country, which here formed the largest colony in the world, were very harassed, prevented from traveling freely, to own radios, to have publications in their language, to transmit their culture to children, and even to show their flag.

It is not surprising that after the official end of the war, most of the Japanese community in Brazil doubted that Japan had lost. In their logic, Japan had never been defeated in two thousand years, and if it were the case, all the Japanese would have to commit suicide. Alie is it the fact that, in the 1940s, the communications are sufferable, especially during wartime.

After an incident where an arrogant policeman raided a party and profaned the Japanese flag, using it to clean his boots, it started an underground movement in the colony, which would culminate with dozens of deaths and thousands of arrests.

Nationalists or tokkotai, who did not believe in Japan's defeat, have created organizations that aimed to punish the Japanese who "had surrendered to the enemy", who lied about Japan's defeat, who spoke Portuguese, and adapted to local customs.These were named "dirty hearts".

What seemed to many simply be a "fight between Japanese" actually became a case of sophisticated propaganda machine, with falsifying reports of international magazines, reversing the victory for Japan.

This movement quite damaged the Brazilian economy, because all that was considered "important to the enemy" was boycotted or sabotaged. The tokkotai brought to Brazil, especially São Paulo and Paraná, war actions that had never happened during the actual war.

Over the years 1946 and 1947, 23 migrants were killed by tokkotai, and 147 were injured. The case has taken such proportions that more than 31,000 migrants were arrested for years, of which 381 actually tried, and 80 sentenced to prison and expulsion from the country. In 1956, all ended up being amnestied by President Kubitschek.

Unlike the book of Fernando Morais, who as always strives for extensive documentation and testimony, the film brings events in fictional form, showing them from the perspective of photographer Takahashi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), his wife iyuki (Takako Tokiwa) and the small girl Akemi (Celine Fukumoto).

Takahashi is co-opted by Watanabe (Eiji Okuda), a retired official of the Japanese Imperial Army to participate in the movement of punishment for traitors of the fatherland. Takahashi feels doubts about whether it is right what they do, especially when he has to fake photos to create the illusion of Japan's victory.

The film recreates competently the rural post-war Brazil, and Japanese colony.The cinematographer used a yellow filter that refers to the universe around which the facts happen. Moreover, the use of a filter that blurred the edges bothered for the excess that was applied.

Another detail that drew attention - and that bothers any lover of Japanese martial arts - was the proposal of the film to use the long sword, katana, for suicides. In real life, it was offered to the victims of tokkotai a tanto, a Japanese military knife. In ancient Japan, the samurais used, for the ritual suicide, the wakizashi, the shortest sword from the pair they customarily used.It would be impossible to do this with the greatest one.

Forgetting these technical details, the film is important to show these facts apparently forgotten in Brazilian history, and in reality reveals how intolerance and fanaticism do harm to humanity. It would be so good people see these movies and take this message of communion of life. Well, if the truth is the first casualty of war, hope is always the last to die.