Wednesday 29 February 2012

The Seeker The rise of the Dark

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.

State of Grace

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 Company Men

The company men 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.

American Beauty

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 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 an 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 which 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 herself 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 distrubed 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

Oscars 13

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 czme 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.

Saturday 25 February 2012

Murphy's War

Although the historical setting is some 1900 years later there are similarities between the Eagle and Murphy’s War, the 1971 Second World War Film with Peter O’ Toole as Murphy and Sian Phillips as a Quaker doctor in a film which could be said to have been a remake of the 1951 African Queen with Boggart and Katherine Hepburn. Murphy’s War is based on 1 novel by Gary Paulson. The African Queen was in turn based on a 1930’s novel about the Great War. The former a German war ship comes up a South American River to hide and repair while in Murphy’s War it is a submarine.

Murphy is rescued after his merchant ship was destroyed by the U Boat at the mouth of Orinoco in Venezuela and where the action takes place and was filmed. He reveals that the U Boat slaughtered fellow sailors in the water as they abandoned their sinking craft.

In addition to the good and virtuous doctor he befriends Louis who lives on a floating crane barge and whose job was to care take the premises of an Oil exploration company, a job for which he has not been paid for four years and survivors as do the villagers from fishing and crop growing. The medical station has a radio which the doctor uses to keep in touch and arrange supplies. She reports the arrival of O’Toole and his story that the submarine had gone up river which she declares is fanciful. Someone else arrives at the water’s edge in a critical condition. He is a young British flyer of a mono sea plane.

While Toole and Louis go in search of the plane, the Germans pick up the radio broadcast and head for the station where the blow up the transmitter and kill the flyer who the doctor pretended is the O’Toole of the merchant ship.

The middle portion of the film covers O Toole using the available machinery of Louis and the company to repair the plane and then test it although O’Toole has no experience as a pilot and his first flight is thwart with difficulties he successfully returns having identified what he believe is the camouflaged submarine but is in fact their up rive base The consequence is that when he destroys the base and a number of German sailors the submarine is intact and returns to the village to destroy the plane and half the village. They go in search of O’Toole who has successfully hidden himself away.

He persuades Louis to let him use the barge in what appears likely is a fruitless and fatal attack on the submarine although he improvises plan B which works.

When they set off the news on the vessel’s radio announces the German surrender. He smashes the radio to prevent the mission being aborted. The good doctor hears the news and seeing the barge on its way up river take to a canoe with two villagers in pursuit to tell the good news. At the submarine base the crew are celebrating going home and then they hear the noise of the approaching barge. The murderous war crimes captain appeals to O Toole that the war is over that alerting Louis to the development. Realising that he the barge is pressing g on to ram the submarine in headlong collision he dives escaping below by a matter of feet.

O’ Toole puts plan B into effect which is get the submarine to fire a torpedo which misses and lands on the beach without exploding. The submarine has hit a sandbank so O Toole takes the barge as close as possible to beach to use the crane to raise the unexploded torpedo. The peaceable Frenchman decides he no longer wants to be a party to what appears to be the slaughter of Germans who have become sitting ducks and goes off along the river bank back to the village.

O’Toole is successful in getting the torpedo over the submarine but following the explosion he is pinned under the crane and is lost along with the barge and submarine. There is a kind of justice reality whereas in the African Queen the two survive to be picked up by a British vessel and after destroying the German vessel. The crane barge was used to lift Tanks ashore and the plane was display in an Ohio Museum. The Submarine was Venezuelan. The three films have in common one man against the odds.

The Eagle

The first The Eagle offers another view of the Ninth, the Roman Legion which disappeared in Northern Britain in the second century AD, The general view is that it was probably defeated in Scotland and that the remnants took wives and became local.

In the film the Centurion son of the commanding officer of the Ninth has volunteered to take charge of a northern fort which has become complacent. He ensures that the defences are up dated and rouses the men quietly when he accurately predicts a night time attack. The combination of these two decisions is that although there are some casualties these are only a small compared to what could have happened.

A patrol has been captured and are being systematically put to death. The young man leads an assault to rescue the survivors and bring back the bodies killing the chief but being badly injured himself. He is acclaimed but retired with honour and is taken to recover with a relative at Silchester in Southern England.

There his uncle entertains some Roman friends including a young politician/diplomat who is scathing about the father and the loss of the Ninth and its Eagle. There are rumours that the Eagle, their symbol of Rome and their honour has been seen flaunted north of Hadrian’s Wall designed to protect Roman Britain from the northern tribes.

The uncle has given Marcus Flavius Aquila a young slave, someone who Marcus insisted should not be ritually slaughtered after refusing to fight in the arena and is badly knocked about. This is Esca the son of the Brigantes Chief whose father killed his mother to prevent her being made into a sex slave for the Roman troops before he himself was slain. Esca feels indebted to the particular Roman but this has not affected his general hatred of the way the Romans have behaved towards the indigenous people.

Marcus takes Esca North, through the Hadrian’s Wall gateway to the wasteland of Northumberland and Scotland where they are advised to go over the mountains to the Forests where a former Roman soldier lives. He now has a wife and family as others who survived and he explains that the Eagle was capture by the Seal People and race of warriors and hunters with the stamina to track down those trying to escape horseback.

Encountering these people Esca convincingly pretends that Marcus is his slave, to an extent that Marcus begins to believe he has turned on him. However at a drunken festival initiation ceremony for young men to be recognised as adult warriors the Eagle is paraded and in the middle of the night Esca arouses Marcus to go and take the Eagle and then take flight. They are helped by a young boy who allows then depart without raising the alarm.

After a great trek they reach the remnants of the Ninth who decide to stand and fight against the advancing horde of the Seal People. They witness the boy who helped them being executed and the majority of the remnant are killed in the battle but they win out and return to Silchester to present the visiting Romans the Eagle. Having retrieved the honour of the family Marcus is declared a hero and reinstated in the army while Esca is given his freedom and the two leave for further adventuring together. The film is based on a 1950’s novel. Given the proposition that Scottish Independence should be put to the vote before next General Election in Scotland the scenario of the border country comparatively few miles from where I live, could again become the land for the smuggling of goods and people

Sunday 19 February 2012

How to Train your Dragon 3D TV

I was tempted to see the 3D version of How to train your Dragon after that it was highly regarded at the time of its release and went to receive several Oscar nominations as well as hatful in the animation industry awards. I then saw the film Sky’s premier release in June of last year as 2D and yesterday I watched the 3D. The film was a financial success grossing half a billion over three times the original budget. The film is not suitable for the very young but having said this it is designed as a counter culture for those films advocating violence and macho toughguyness. The film is set on a mythical Viking Island inhabited by a wide range of colourful dragons that are regarded as the great enemy and children of both sexes are brought learning how to become dragon fighters and dragon killers. The problem is that killing creatures does not appeal to the son of the village chief, Stoick the Vast. Hiccup, the name says it all, tries to design a machine which will bring down a dragon to prove his worth to his father who treats him with contempt.

One evening he believes he has hit a dragon flying over and goes out to search. The following day he finds the creature with a damaged tail which prevents flying. Given the opportunity kill the creature he finds that he cannot do so and gradually makes friends bringing the animal some food. He searches a book about dragons and work out how to provide a replacing tail wing to enable it to fly with the consequence he is able to fly with the creature. He keeps this secret from the rest of the village but uses information from the training of the creature to control the various small dragons used to help the young people in their training as dragon killers. The most successful of these will be given the honour of killing one of the capture dragons before the assembled village in the dragon arena.

On one of his flying missions he discovers that all the dragons on the Island are under the control of a super dragon that lives inside a great mountain and their function is to keep the creature supplied with food. They have no interest in attacking human other than in self defence. When he is attacked by another dragon his dragon comes to his aid and is captured by the village and against the pleas of Hiccup his father takes the dragon with the combined Viking force to locate the great mountain and the monster animal. The consequence is that the giant dragon become free and burns the Viking ships and generally threatens to kill the forces on the ground. They are saved by Hiccup and the other youngsters who have been quickly taught to also fly some sympathetic dragons and keep the monster busy until Hiccup is able to free Toothless. By some skilful and dangerous manoeuvres the two manage to get the monster to destroy itself but only with the result of Hiccup falling into the inferno created and Toothless trying to rescue him. The Viking chief finds the dragon badly injured and no sign of his son until the dragon reveals his boy injured but alive cradled within the wing of the creature. The picture ends with dragons and Vikings living in harmony and teenage Astrid and Hiccup becoming more than just good friends. Good fun for a family.

The 3D effects considerably enhance enjoyment of the film.

Avatar revisisted with 3D TV

Friday 17 February 2012

The Russia House with Connery

In this break from the Leveson Inquiry there is opportunity to catch up on a number of activities and projects including the work of John Le Carré in book and film, and with of my favourite Le Carré film The Russia House because of the romantic, happy and amusing nature of the story which is devoid of grimness of much of confrontation between the intelligence services of the USA, GB and the Soviets headed by Russia. The opportunity was also taken to read the book which functions at a different level.

The film is even suitable for watching in Valentine’s week unlike the reality of the cold war even under glasnost and perestroika where double dealings, betrayals and death continued. Whether loss of lives, expenditure in time and effort was helpful to any of the sides is debatable especially to those of us on the outside gleaned from news reports, literature, film and TV.

The action commences in Moscow at an international attempt to interest the Russians in the English Language Talking Book Audio cassette Fair. The film opens when a woman arrives at the adjacent stand to that hired by Bartholomew Scott Blair, the part owner and manager of a book publishing firm of Abercrombie and Blair. She asks Niki Landau (not to be confused with Andreas Niki Lauder the Formula I racing driver) if he will take a book Barley Scott Blair as he is known who she says he has agreed to publish. Barley nick named after the basic substance of beer was not at the Fair because the aunts who partnered him in the family business, helping to keep it afloat and in the life style which he had accustomed, decided against branching out into audio tapes so he has instead gone to his bolt hole in Lisbon unknown to the intelligence man who is the voice of the book.

The book was first published in 1989 the year when it can be said the Soviet empire disintegrated in a series of independence moves as President Korbechev also attempted to move Russia into a new order. (I have Gail Sheehy’s 1991 biography). The arms race and its industry remained at the forefront of Western economies and politics, at the time that Polish but London based Niki brought the package back to London and not finding Barley had contacted several government departments until making contact with British intelligence.

In the film the role of the character Niki Lander does not impact to the same effect as in the book although even here the role is described as prologue. Niki is fed up with making depressing trips where income rarely balanced costs and he longs for a more comfortable life. Although the persistence of the woman has annoyed him and he was a little disappointed when she declined his invitation to a nice dinner he accepts her assignment because her plea reached to the nice being within his outward shell.

In his search to find Barley followed also by the UK intelligence service we also learn more in the book about Barley that he was married for instance and has two grown children with their own lives, and that he belonged to a London club in addition to his ability to play jazz clarinet and chess against all comers.

The book also explains the lengths Niki has to go to make contact with the intelligence service and the lengths they then go to quiz him about the woman and her package. He had played his part well, getting her to pretend she was passing to him the book in an anonymous plastic bag as a gift, the possession of which marked her as different from the average Muscovite who carried a string bag, in fact as he disclosed he was certain her manner, her dress suggested Stalingrad/St Petersburg as it has now returned to its original name and Russia’s second city and home of the greatest museum art gallery in the world.

The book also raises the discussion about what British intelligence should do with Niki as he had flipped through the three notebooks with over two hundred pages of text and grasped their potential significance without understanding the pages of formulae and technical notes. He was told to cancel the arranged visit to Gdansk so they could cover everything that had happened in minute detail. They wanted to know if he had been given special treatment on his way back home which might indicate that the book was a plant and they wanted to know about anyone and everyone that he might have mentioned the package and its delivery to him.

Fortunately for him he said nothing to anyone but attempted to find Barley and then persisted until making contact with the right people. At the end of the process with muttering dark threats he is presented with a cheque for £100000 financed by the Americans, told his overseas trips have ended and his movements will have to be monitored even with signing the Official Secrets Act. For some the requirements would be onerous but for Niki all his dreams had come true and he was able to open a video cassette store which did interest the police from time to time, by implication because of the material he sometimes stocked and sold, but nothing which his minders could not sort out for him. The only thing that was missing is that his path never crossed with Barley again, a precondition of the settlement but something he wished would happen in order to show his appreciation of the man until his death he believed was a professional spy, for how could you judge someone who appeared in a drunken stupor most of the time and then beat anyone and everyone at a game of chess.

The reason for this emerged during the first part of the book when it is revealed that Barley has an extraordinary precise memory of conversations was well of events. Fifty years ago as part of training I learned to make a process record in which I recorded as much of the conversations and interaction with a client I could remember and then applied my knowledge and in time experience to make an analysis of the problem, the situation, the judgement which could be made.

The intelligence service is able to trace the whereabouts of Barley from his bank statements which shows he rent of the property in Lisbon Portugal. They find him at a cafe playing Chess and he is invited to accompany the man from the Embassy where he is taken to meet a group with includes the CIA who are quite open. In the film the man from the Embassy Ned is played by James Fox and another of the group is played by Ken Russell the film Director who died last year. Martin Clunes is the technician recording the conversation in an adjacent room.

The film foreshortens through visual presentation Barley’s realization that while he has never met the Russian woman Katya played by Michelle Pfeiffer he has met someone who is likely to be the author of the manuscripts.

He explains that on his previous visit for a book Fair, the Sunday after drinking all night they had gone to Peredelkino in Jumbo’s car. to the grave of Boris Pasternak and then he had got into conversation with a man. Jumbo by the way was a Russian Gold Card man, closet Scottish Fascist and Black Belt Freemason. Peredelkino the writers dacha village.

There were some two hundred at the grave of Boris Pasternak which was steeped in flowers. A plane flew over and back no doubt taking long lens photos of those below.. Barley remembered he had quoted the lines from the Nobel Prize winning speech.


“Like a beast in the pen I’m cut off.
From my friends. Freedom, the sun
But the hunters are gaining ground
I’ve nowhere else to run”

Barley remembers that the man who spoke to them was Nezhdanov which those from the visiting Russia House were immediately able to amplify that Vitaly Nezhdanov had become a latter day hero with three one act plays opening in Moscow within the coming few weeks. Barley is pleased to have this intelligence having taken a great liking to the man with their visit to a Dacha, a big rambling house with some thirty people present; this was reduced to probably a dozen for the film. The hostess was a poet. And they spoke English which was essential given that Barley had only a handful of words which is surprising given his memory but there we are. Husband edited a science magazines and Nezhdanov was a the brother in law. That had sat together at lunch at one table drinking and talk about truth.

The closest I got to such a gathering was when at Ruskin when I was part of small group of politically orientated students who also had a sense of history and an international outlook. What happen to them I wonder? That there have not been other such occasions in the rst of my life is cause for regret.

The man was called Goethe, not his real name, but someone protected by the group, a genius, this was the man with whom conversation had taken place which Barley considered led to the manuscript being delivered to him.

Disarmament was not a political matter or military he had said but of human will. This was an important statement which resonated with me given my experience and actions. I would have added that politics ought to be about will but is has become the art of the possible with the Party framework and international capitalism. He had spoken well of Gorbachev arguing that the West had to find the other half of him while the East had to recognise the half they had.

In response to those who said the bomb had kept the peace for forty years he had asked what Peace?

They had gone in after the meal and the drinking to listen to Count Basie whose records I have on one original Long Play and a 3 disk boxed set as well individual numbers among my collection of Big Band Jazz. It was an interesting choice because the more likely artist could have been expected to have been Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman or Glen Miller if they were locked into pre World War one jazz swing, Basis was his own man and style but also main stream

Count Basie Dance Session
Straight Life, Basie Goes West Softly with Feeling, Peace Pipe, Blues Go Away, Cherry Point, Bubble, Right On, The Blues done come back and Plymouth Rock

And a 3 dick Box Set
Oh Lady be Good, Going to Chicago Blues, Live and Love Tonight, Love me or Leave Me, Rock a bye Basie, Baby dont tell on me, Taxi War Dance, Jump for me, Twelfth Street Rag, Nobody knows, Pound cake, Ho long blues, Dickie’s Dream, Lester leaps in, The apple jump, I left my baby, Volcano.

The devil and the deep blue sea, I never knew, Tickle Toe, Louisiana, Easy Does it, Let me see, Blow Top, Gone with the Wind, Super Chief, You betcha my life, Down down down, Tune Town Shuffle, I’m tired of waiting for you, Basie Boogie, Fancy meeting you, My old flame, Ton Thumb, Take me back baby, All of Me, One o’clock jump’

And the angels sing, Bolero at the Savoy You can count on me, Your and your love, What goes up must come down, Fiesta in Blue, Something new, Sub-deb Blues, Boogie woogie, Bubbles, How high the moon, Your’re not the kind, Jumpin at the woodside, Jive at five, Yesterdays, Blee Blop Blues, Straight Life, 16 men swinging, Nails, Two Franks. I have also experience the Count Basie at the former Grand Croydon Theatre, usually a cinema with several thousand seats but which hosted a number of visiting jazz band sin the later 1950’s and 1960’s.

He had gone to sleep in deck chair on the veranda with a blanket wrapped around him waking at midnight wondering where he was. It was Goethe talking to him saying that some things are necessary evils. All victims are equal none more equal than others. Both these were quotes back from what Barley had said at lunchtime. He had asked Goethe who he was with the response a moral outcast. I trade in defiled theories he added. Nice to meet a writer Barley had said asking what kind of a writer he was. There was no denial. History, lies, comedies and romances came the reply.

Asked where his idea came from he had spoken at length mentioning the obscene fantasies of politicians and generals of all nations and from liberated intellects from pressed ganged Nazi scientists, from the great Soviet people and after other thoughts adding occasionally from distinguished western intellectuals who happen to drop into my life,

He said he believed every word Barley had said at the dinner and promised that if he was not a spy he would promise something in return.

The gathering around Barley from the Circus and the CIA had then considered the material in the notebooks, its potential significance and Barley’s appreciation. It was decided that Barley should return and attempt to meet Goethe and that he should have an assistant, an Editor on the books so to speak of the Publishing firm and for this it was necessary to successfully spin a story to the Aunts. He had been taken back to England to a safe house cottage in Knightsbridge chosen because Barley had no connections in the area. with the costs borne by the Americans because they were going take control. There was three weeks of intense preparations at the end of which there was a special meal. A salmon trout on a silver dish two bottle of Sancerre and a rare single malt whiskey. I drank my first bottle of Sancerre late in life at a great meal in Le Touquet in him 1980’s with a whole crab starter and a ain course fish which I have listed somewhere having retained he bills followed by a double crème caramel and coffee. It tasted my first single malt at a club in Edinburgh one afternoon, bought by the chairman of the Dunoon CND after a meeting of the Scottish CND Committee.


Before departing the Circus people had checked his flat for his likely state of mind and discovered he had written from Stevie Smith

I am not so afraid of the dark night
As the friends I do not know.

And I learn by going where I have to go, which applies to me more often than not.

In Moscow Katya had been alerted and eagerly awaited his arrival.

Gorky Park

It seems appropriate to include in this piece a review of Gorky Park, a film viewed in the theatre and previously on TV. Again it is a film set as Russian commenced to move between its past and its future with a few Westerners permitted into the country but at a time when movement for Russians was prevented except on official visits. While the politics of the country, its human rights record and relations with the West are the present in the film the story is that of the murder of three young women in Gorky Park, but no ordinary murder as the killer or killers had taken great steps to prevent identification by destroying face and hands, and clinically.

The other aspect of the film is the trade in the Sable which was regarded and in some countries is still regarded as the most luxury of fur coats. The creature lived in the cold wild forests of Russian, China and Japan but in more recent times is farmed. The premise of the film is that the hunting of the wild Russian Sable tipped with silver was strictly controlled with an ban on exporting pairs if live animals in order to maintain the price. Jack Osborne is an American with a licence to hunt the wild Sable and export the skins with appropriate premiums paid to the authorities.

He cuts a deal with corrupt officials to export three pairs to the wilds of Sweden where he has a farm. This involves the secret building of a trunk by the three young women on the promise of being smuggled out Russia. Assigned to investigate the case is Arkady Renko a man who describes himself as solid and methodical, a modern but loyal Russian with no illusions about the nature of his society and who meets with an American detective, whose brother has disappeared and has been given permission to enter the country to investigate what happened with the help of the authorities. Renko (American actor William Hurt and not to be confused with John Hurt, the British special Bafta award winner) becomes concerned when the KGB show no interest in the deaths of the young women and his suspicion rises when at the weekend Dacha of the Chief Prosecutor Lanskoy (Ian Bannen) he meets Osborn (Lee Marvin) and his girl friend Irina Asanova. With the help of an assistant (a much thinner Richard Griffiths) and a university Professor the face of one of the girls is reconstructed to help identification and that of a second head which remains to be completed.

Renko works out that someone skilful in skinning the Sables to prevent damage to their fur is the ideal candidate for the murder of the young woman and he keeps an eye Osborne and his girl friend as does the American and the KGB, Eventually Renko and the American prevent a KGB officer from completing the injection of a lethal substance into Irina and Renko takes the young woman to his flat to recuperate. He tries to persuade her to be open about Osborne and the killing of the three young women but she still has hopes of also being taken to the West which she believes the other girls have been able to do so with his help, Renko and the girl become lovers and in order to shake her out of her illusions he confronts here with the head of one of the girls. She admits the plot but then runs away.

When Renko and the American go to check out the second head they see a KGB officer leaving the building with it in a box and they follow to where he hands it over to the Chief Prosecutor and Osborne. The head is that of the brother of the American Detective. Later in a Russian baths Renko confronts the Prosecutor and in a fight kills him.

In order to create dramatic tension the rest of the story is left to unfold with first Renko and two associates going to Sweden where Osborne lives, and who had advise he is leaving Russia for good as a wealthy home on the city and an isolated fur farm close to a forest. Renko has come to retrieve the Sables and kill Osborne but is told by a senior official they have come to cut a deal. When he meets Osborne and is taken back to his luxury home he is shocked to Irina him having managed to get out of the country. He and his colleagues arrange to meet Osborne at his farm where first he finds the American gutted and tied to a tree because he had killed one Osborne’s dogs, Osborne appears with the six pelts of the Sable but a cautious Renko is convinced that one of his colleagues is also a traitor and in the subsequent fight Renko, Osborne and Irina are the only ones to survive. It is Irina, who kills Osborne emptying the magazine into the body,

Renko has discovered that Osborne had previously exported another set of Sable which he lefts out into the wild. The girl wants Renko to leave Russia and join her in the west. He explains that back home he had agreed that his permission was to retrieve the Sable and Kill Osborn and then return with the freedom of the girl being his price for taking the risks. In any event he says he is a Russian and would not be content in the West. The girl offers to return to Russia with him but he admits she needs the freedom. He offers a prophetic thought, given when the book was written and the film released (1983) that hopefully things will change and they will be able to be together.

Despite all the effective efforts against the use of animal fur for coats, a Russian Sable three quarter length coast is on Bay at present for £63000 sold by a Chinese firm. I recall a dinner held by the Association of Directors of Social Services North East branch where all the wives accept my partner wore fur coats (I need to write up aspects of that event in the context of allegations made by someone investigating the abuse of children in public care.

Amy Winehouse Back to Back
Rehab
You know Im no Good
Me and Mr Jones
Back to Black
Love is a losing game
Tears Dry on their Own
Wake up alone
Some unholy War
He can only hold her
Addicted.

Franz Ferdinand
Jacqueline
tell her tonight
take me Out
the dark of the Matinee
auf achse
cheating on you
this fire
darts of pleasure
Michael
come on home
40

The Essential Bob Dylan
Blowing in the Wind
Don’t think Twice Its Alright
The Times they are a changing
It aint me Babe
Maggies Farm
It’s all over now Baby Blue
Mr Tambourine Blue
Subterranean Homesick Blues
Like a Rolling Stone
Positively 4th Street
Can you please crawl out your window?
I want you
Just like a woman
Rainy Day woman
All along the watchtower
Quinn the Eskimo
Ill be your baby tonight
Lay Lady Lay
If not for you
I shall be released
You aint going nowhere
Knocking on Heaven’s door
Forever Young
Tangled up in Blue
Shelter from the Storm
Hurricane
Changing of the Guards
Gotta serve somebody
Blind Willy McTell
Jokerman
Tight connections to my heart
Silvio
Everything is Broken
Dignity
Not Drunk Yet
Things have changed



Marc Bolan T Rex
20th Century Boy
Get it On
Metal Guru
Ride a White Swan
Hot Love
Jeepster
Telegram Sam
I Live to Boogie
Children of the revolution
Sold Gold Easy Action
New York City
The Groover
Truck on Tyke
Debora
One Inch Rock
Light of Love
Dreamy Baby
London Boys
Celebrate Summer
Teenage Dream
The Wizard
Desdemona
Pewter Suitor
King of the Running Spires
By the Light of the Magical Moon
It is Love?
King of the Mountain Cometh
Cosmic Dancer
Raw Ramp
Life’s a Gas
Sailors of the Highway
Thunder Wing
Born to Boogie

Christmas Bop

Laser Love
Life’s am Elevator
Soul of my suit
Dandy in the Underworld




Thursday 16 February 2012

Battle Los Angeles

This accolade goes to Battle Los Angeles. The world is led to believes that an meteorite shower is expected to fall largely off cost and then on the seaboards and then it transpires these are sprayed weapons of Alien invaders. They have drone fighters that can target onto any electrical device and they have super personal fighters which remind of the super fighters in Avatar while the individual aliens appear mixtures of being an instrunemtn rather like the Borg’s. The onoy way to take on what is evidently superior fighting force in numbers and equiment is to blanket bomb the area they ghee gained although why this should work is not explained. In such a situation we are asked to accept the ludicrous proposition tat a band of highly trained professional soldiers would be tasked to rescue a few civilians taking shelter in a local police station where the police are long gone or killed.

Almost all the film comprises the attempt of these men to complete the mission and includes someone who had put in for his release papers after combat experience and a training role. The civilian father of a young boy dies and so too do several of the soldiers. They not only rescue the remaining civilians before the obliteration bombs but manage to work out how best to attack kill individuals and they also destroy a Command and Control Centre.
And that is about it.

The Lincoln Lawyer

Another of the American dream myths is the Lincoln Lawyer in which unscrupulous and amoral operators can be made to change their spots by a sudden bolt on insight into their iniquity. This time the proposition is that because everyone is entitled under the rule of law to have the allegations against them tested in open court it is morally defendable to use wealth and power, including wealth and power criminally obtained, as well as the laws procedures and precedents and the adversarial system to get the blatant guilty off. From my experience in the UK British lawyers have a sense of right and wrong and will not contest cases where the their any admission of guilt but in those instances concentrate on putting forward any genuine evidence in mitigation and for seeking mercy. I do not know the extent to which the sharp shooting money making amoral street lawyer is a Hollywood created myth but the number of times the story of the Lincoln Lawyer has been told, my instinct tells me it is not.

In this instance Mickey Heller is asked by a bondsman, always shady characters in Hollywood films along with Bounty Hunters to make money loaning you the instant cash to make bail, to take on Louis Roulet Beverly Hill playboy son of a wealthy and powerful property family. Louis is accused of brutally beating up a young woman who he claims picked him up in a bar. He claims that on arrival at her flat he had been hit on the head and recovered to find himself being pinned down by two neighbours of the woman who she had called for help. He and his dominating and pushy mother claimed he had been set up and that this was a shakedown. He would not pay up or plea bargain for a crime he did not commit and is most convincing about his innocence.

To soften his image as a rule exploiting and bending bastard who will do anything for money Mickey has a beautiful young daughter whose care he shares with his ex wife who is also physically beautiful with an adorable personality who appears to have an ongoing relationship with the hotman, you know what I mean, and Mickey is otherwise monogamous and dedicated to his dubious trade. The basic flaw in this film is that there no justification why Mickey is as he is when it comes to the way he operates his trade. And guess what his ex wife is a prosecutor and her main beef is the way he gets arseholes off or plea bargains?

Now this is where the film also tries to draw a line between the really nasty devil villains and OK villains in that one of Mickey’s roles is to get some drug pushing, minor violent bikers from facing the full force of the law for their crimes. Instead of coming to his office they tend to drive up the free way in formation and direct him to a siding where they can put their beef to him. I cannot remember or care if it was one of bikers that Mickey had persuaded to plea bargain for life in exchange to the electric chair for a murder he insists he did not commit or how Mickey comes to the view that it was his client who had committed the original murder and was therefore also guilty of the brutal assault.

Mickey is able to get hold of a copy of the police file only to find that suspecting this is his modus operandus they have not included the photo of the knife which the perpetrator had used on the face of the victim with a jagged blade and unique handle and which belonged to Louis. He then realises that this knife was used in the previous crime and that the man he persuaded to plea guilty and plea bargain was innocent

It is at this point that Mickey finds that he has allowed himself to be a patsy for having yielded to the bondsman request for a fee for telling Mickey about the arrest of Louis when he finds that Louis and his mother had had Mickey and asked the bondsman to contact Mickey because they were aware he had been involved in the earlier case. By appointing Mickey they were aware he could not use the earlier info against his client which the man now admits he was guilty of both crimes but tightens his hold on Mickey by threatening to harm his daughter and ex wife if he does not keep his mouth shut.

Mickey uses his private investigator buddy to try and find out anything they use to nail Louis and then the private investigator is murder by a historical weapon which Louis has stolen from Mickey’s home after breaking in to confront the lawyer. The expendable use of Private I’s was brought home when I caught the tail end of a Gregory Peck film where he is a scientist who develop amnesia after he believes he is the cause of the death of his employer and family friend. He hires a Private Eye to try and find out his background and the man is murdered by those seeking to kill Peck.

Back to the Lincoln Lawyer who finds an answer phone message from the private eye which leads to evidence which could convict Louis of the earlier murder. What Mickey the does and is in fairness the unique aspect of the film which makes the production worthwhile. He uses all his established tricks to successfully get Louis acquitted but in doing so introduces evidence drawing attention to the murder and with the finding of guilt he is free to assist the police and DA with the evidence secured by the private eye for Louis to be immediately rearrested. This brings the wrath of the mother who has known all about her sons nocturnal cravings. It is she who has murdered the detective and it is she who now attempts to kill Mickey with the same weapon. Fortunately he has secured a gun of his own from his driver who he employed having lost his licence so although wounded he survives and in hospital learns that the man he persuaded to go to prison has been released and that the DA is going for the death penalty on Louis.

The film is based on a novel by Michael Connelly which is not and never will be on my list to read. Both young women were prostitutes with the latter who survived charging $400 a time. There is a red hearing of one of her clients on whom Louis attempts to put the blame which was the situation in relation the client he persuaded to plead guilty and who Louis had effectively frame for the previous murder, and no doubt countless others.

Just when one thinks that Mickey is about to mend his ways and get back with his wife and daughter now that he has seen the light he meets up with the bikers who want his help in another hopeless cause and who request a half price job because of their help in a way I cannot also now remember. Mickey shows that he really is a good guy by taking the case pro bono. However this was not the worst film of the week.

Wednesday 15 February 2012

The Adjustment Bureau

I thought the Adjustment Bureau a clever but flawed film. The film is part of genre where Angels in various guises come to earth on some Godly mission. The best loved is Its a Wonderful Life with Clarence determined to get his Wings and then the wartime Matter of Life and Death and Heaven can Wait. In this film the Angels are among us ensuring that we keep to God’s individual and written down plan because we have shown we are not capable of exercising free. The deity is not referred to as God in order not to offend religious sensibilities although the central argument for their intervention is one that most religious bodies would concur that human kind has abused free will and God has determined that until everyone learns to exercise that will is more creative and Godlike way it is suspend while a number of special individuals with the right basic qualities have their life plans controlled and if appropriate constantly adjusted, we would say tweaked to ensure they fulfil destiny and contribute to creating a world in which humans can be allowed to make their choices freely. Where this proposition crosses the acceptable line is of course that flies in the Christian belief that life is meant to be a struggle in which human can make bad ethical choices and condemn themselves to eternal damnation until such time as God gets fed up and calls a halt the whole caboodle in which instance the collective day of reckoning will arrive.

The best laid plans come to naught comes to mind as a set of particular circumstances throws Elise Sellas played by Emily Blunt who is planned to become a world acclaimed dancer with David Norris (Matt Damon) who is scheduled to become President of the United States.

They met up in the men’s room where she is hiding having crashed a wedding reception (one of many unlikelies in film) and the interaction leads to a kiss after she hears him planning his acceptance of defeat. Inspired by this contact he gives an honest explanation for the loss by having given too great a reliance on focus groups, opinion polls and presentation consultants a constant beef about American political life along with its corruption and bully which having been censured intensifies continuing in the same manner as before.
In this instance the speech has almost magical qualities and impresses all kinds of Joe’s and Jane in the street and David is back on his pathway tot he White House and saving mankind.

Sometime later unknown to the audience an Angel called Harry is told by one of his seniors to intercept David Norris for a few minutes before he make his way to the office of new job. The purpose of the delay although its precision a few minutes before his arrival is not explained, is to enable a squad of angels complete with security guards to freeze the entire office staff at the premises in order to fix the new seniors of Mr Norris to further his progress in the divine plan. The proposition that such divine intervention could only be achieved by such an earthly and physical manoeuvre is preposterous although it is essential for the rest of story as the failure of the delay means that David discovers the intervention and requires and explanation with warning.

There is a further complication in that David has meet Elise again on the bus and she giver him her telephone number which is written on the back of a card. The boss man on the ground explains that David has been selected to be part of a special plan from which there can be no deviation. He should not have witnessed what he has and if he discloses to any one his being will wiped and will be given a very different life outcome. Any involvement with the young woman is out of the question and the phone card is destroyed.

However a spark has been lit so although he continues to make political progress and does well in his occupation he send much of his free time trying to find the young woman. He does this on his own quietly, believing it is out of sight and mind of his official minders.

When they meet for a third he has difficulty explaining why he failed to contact her although she is still single and was clearly very interested in him she has since had at least one relationship which had led to an engagement. She is a dancer and he manages to get the name of her company and arranges to meet to see her after a rehearsal. Aware of this further contact the angel brigade keep him under constant surveillance using a form a hand held Sat life Navigators which controls the immediate environment as well as thought decision making process. Despite this ability they are required to keep within a limited range of their subject so if able to throw a curved ball they can be jolted off the navigation plan

This provides the opportunity for an interesting use of CGI as while they move around the city on foot they are able to use portals which enable speedy short cuts as fast as any motor vehicle or city centre train. The minders fix it that the two would be lovers do not meet up but David makes use of his creativity as well as motivation to eventually get to where the girl is rehearsing. It is at this point the local chief shows David the extent of her talent and that is scheduled to become an internationally acclaimed super dancers which he will ruin when after her causer her to have an accident and the doctors will decide that either it is a temporary sprain or a fracture which will force early retirement and a career as a dance teacher.

All appears lost until his personal angel minder intervenes having discovered that the two were originally destined for each other which is why there as the instant attraction but then the decision was taken that they would have separate destinies and that their paths were never intended to cross. Why this decision was taken is not explained

Harry decides to intervene in two ways. The first is to approach the Chairman directly with the plight of the couple and secondly he tutors David in how to evade surveillance and travel at speed through the city using the portals. The climax of the film is an intense chase between the couple and the official forces determined to separate them and make a permanent adjustment. Just when all appears lost Harry appears with a communiqué for the lead pursuer to say a change of plan has been put into effect and the couple are to stay together. A different kind of adjustment has been undertaken. It is good fare for Valentine’s day week although the ending that true love can overcome God‘s will is interesting nonsense.

Wednesday 8 February 2012

L'avventura

The fifth was one of the great disappointments when it was first released and viewed in Theatre back in the early 1960’s. L’Avventura was directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and features Monica Vitti in the main role of young woman who is best friend of another young woman who has disappeared and she falls in love with the boyfriend when they try to find out what has happened. The films lasts 145 mins and is full intended depth and stylised shots which failed to engage or impress me them, let alone now. The film is regarded by many as important in development an approach to use photography to communicate feelings more than words.

In terms of story we never know what happened to the original girl friend and in fact concern for her appears to quickly depart from the young man and while the best friend feels guilt at first she quickly allows her needs and passions to dominate her consciousness. The characters as with many in Italian films of this era appear to led empty self obsessed lives with no interest in the political and social concerns of their countrymen and the world at large. The relationship between the central characters has its ups and downs especially when Vitti finds the boyfriend with a prostitute. He appears disgusted with himself and Vitti appears to forgive him. Symbolically Mount Etna which I have visits at its rim, looks ready to erupt once more
.

The 300

I have seen Clash of the Titans, I am convinced in theatre but I cannot find my review at the time. In ancient Times the Gods led by Zeus divided up the world/universe with Zeus controlling the land and sky Poseidon the sea and Hades the underworld. Hades was tricked by Zeus which eh resents at what appeared to him to be banishment and a lack of power.

Zeus was responsible for the creation of human beings whose prayers sustained him in strength and power but where the human felt they were not getting a good deal from their subservience.

Pete Potlewathwaite plats a fisherman who finds a floating coffin in which here id a live child but whose mother is dead. He brings up the child as his own and as part of his family when he marries and heroes a child/children of the marriage.

When on a fishing expedition and admiring the great status of Zeus they are horrified to see soldiers from the city of Argos bring the statue down which falls into the sea. This rouses the wrath of Hades who appears in the form of a being reminiscent of supernatural creature in the series The Island but who then sends a bolt in the direction of the fishing boat which destroys the family leaving the son free. The son Perseus is captured by soldiers from Argos who take him to the court when the wife of the King in particular is in great defiance setting herself and her daughter above the Gods,

Hades has approached the other Gods on Mount Olympus to plead that the rebellion of the human cannot be allowed to go unchecked and Zeus in part from guilt at the earlier actions causing his brother to be left in the Underworld allows him to put humans in their place his way. The immediate consequence of this is his appearance at the Argos Court where he first eliminates the guards leaving only Zeus unscathed and then turns the Queen into an old woman/skeleton. He then poses a chose to the King of surrendering his daughter to the Kraken a sea based giant monster controlled if not spawned by Haddes, if the total population is not be obliterated.

Perseus initially does not accept that he is anything other than human but when there it appears established that he is the son of Zeus and that he and his mother was cast adrift in the ocean. He makes it plain that he wants to be regarded and to act as a human and that he is hostile to the Gods in general because of what happened to his adopted family. Having said this he is assisted Lo a beautiful young woman condemned to being ageless as gift from Zeus for refusing his advances,

At one point she delivers a special sword and at another she is responsible for providing him with Pegasus the flying horse. He also has a meeting with his father who begs him to up a position on Mount Olympus with him after having rejected him but when his son says he wishes to continue as he is; he does accept a gold coin, the fare for Charon, the Ferryman of the Underworld.

He also attempts to prevent the sacrifice of Andromeda, the daughter of the King by visiting the three women who function with one hand held eye, the Stgyian witches and he also then goes on a quest to encounter the gorgon Medusa. On his way he and soldiers from Argus encounter Calibos the form King whose wife was taken by Zeus and who cast the woman and child adrift. He has been given powers by Haddes to help his vengeance on Perseus and when they fight and his arm is severed it is turned into the fist of several giant scorpions. Just when the party appears out numbered by these creatures a race, the Djinn arrives who are able to control the beasts and then use them as a means of transport,

He then uses the coin from his father to enter the Underworld and encounter Medusa who after fighting he cuts of her head. Meanwhile back in Argos the mob have yield to incitement to surrender up Andromeda who is attached to a sacrificial structure for the Kraken. She is saved by Perseus with the help of Pegasus and the use of Gorgon head to send Haddes back to the Underworld.

Andromeda presses Perseus to stay and be king but he says she will make great Queen. Zeus also appears and expresses the hope that his son is now ready to join him on Olympus but Perseus says he is content in human form. Previously Lo has given her life to enable Perseus to gain the head of the Medusa and free Andromeda and as a reward for returning Haddes to the Underworld and returning the world to the previous harmony Zeus brings back Lo so that his son has a companion and the two fly away on Pegasus.

The film was original made for Theatre is conventional 2 D. It was then remade in 3D with the consequence it provides the internal dimensional view without the gimmicks of things flying in and out of the screen in d a distracting way. This also provided an alternative ending in which Perseus develops a relationship with Andromeda which is brought to life with rescuing her from a certain and horrible death. He says he will return but first flies to Mount Olympus to advise his father that he does not wish to be a god before flying off, we presume back to Andromeda. Lo has remained dead something which she had intimated she longed for having lived for so long and seen all her contemporaries and love ones dies, an experience which Perseus could empathise through the loss of his family.

There is a good cast in the film with Sam Worthington as Perseus, Liam Neilson as Zeus, Ralph Fiennes as Haddes and as mentioned the late Pete Postlethwaite as the surrogate father. This brings credibility to the ancient Myth and Legend.

I now come to the least effective of the films seen, the 300. The story of the men trained from childhood to become ruthless killers with no other purpose in life than to produce children who would become nation sanctioned killers in their footsteps. This was also a race of people that murdered boys at birth who were weak or deformed or who the male parent felt was unlikely to become a replica of themselves. They used slaves although it said within limits they treated women well although it would more appropriate to say they treated “their” women well and in the film the wife of King Leonides tells him to come back with victory or die in honour. There is no alternative to a situation where the opposing forcee is huge with enormous resources while the city state is comparatively poor, small and under resourced despite the machine like quality of the special forces.

The story is uncomplicated. The Persians on sea and land want to conquer the known world as far as they can and Sparta wants to retain its independence. When the Persian King sends his envoy to request homage and acceptance of their fate he is pushed to his death down a well. The King has a plan to locate his forces at the entrance to a narrow gorge on the plain of Thermopile which I have visited and present such a barrier that the Persian ruler will grow tired and move them on elsewhere. Before he can put his plan into practice he must consult the Ephors and ancient leprosy ridden priests who live on an isolated mountain rather like Mount Olympus who in turn consult the oracle who appear to be teenage nubile young women who are ravished by the old men and trained to say whatever the old men have determined in advance of any consultation.

They and the Oracle say no to the Spartan plan and afterwards we learn that that they have been bribed by an ambitious politician who wants to be King in league with the Persians and who has offered the Ephors an unlimited supply of you women to be trained as oracles on a daily basis plus a pile of gold.

The outcome is that the politicians refuse Leonides permission so he calls for volunteers to accompany him on an exercise which so happens takes them to place of proposed confrontation with the enemy.

The main part of the film therefore concerns the battle between the 300 and the hordes of the Persians and their subjugated people. They are attacked by cavalry, elephants and other beasts, powder bombs, the Immortals and showers of arrows. Then they are undone by one of their own people. This is hunchback who escapes the cull at birth and was taken by his parent to live outside the city but was trained to fight and has the burning despite to prove him and his family’s honour in battle. He is rejected and told he can help the wounded and dead after each battle. This act of insensitivity results in the man offering his services, and in particular his knowledge of a pathway which will take the Persians behind and above the Spartans in exchange for access to the slave women folk of the Persian King who behaves like a God and is satisfied with an act of homage as people prostrate themselves in adoration before him.

Leonides is given two opportunities to surrender by the Persian King which are rejected and as the mountain of killed enemy grows the anger of the Persian intensifies with neither side taking prisoners.

Meanwhile the Queen has been trying to win support from the politicians to raise an army in support of her husband who has only obtained the support from another city state but whose men are not professional soldiers. She is told that she needs to bring the ambitious Theron on side and to this she has to subject herself to rape advising in advance that she will not enjoy his attention. However when she goes to the Council he accuses her of adultery so she kills him in her anger. The blow opens his purse to reveal Persian Gold and the extent of his treachery. This prompts Spartans to unite and raise an army of 10000 which together with 40000 others from the rest of Greece confronts the Persians who still have three times as many fighting men.

Before his death Leonides has a near miss at killing the Persian King but he and his men die with honour, Before this he had sent a messenger back to ensure the tale of their action is known to his countrymen and pass down to history, Historians have been able to place the action in the context of the brutality of both sides and their civil shortcomings in terms of what is considered acceptable to day.

Now to the facts. The Spartan army in force with other Greeks estimate to be around 7000 confronted the Persians estimated 100000 to 30000 while the respective Navies were engaged in Battle. The Persians had invaded again after their first invasion defeat at the Battle of Marathon where a runner brought the news to Athens some 26 plus miles away, a site which I have also visited. It was after the betrayal disclosing the pathway that Leonides dismissed the bulk of his force to regroup while he fought what he knew was a rearguard action and which he believed would unite all Greeks against the invaders. While the Persians were able to make progress they were every defeated and with drew. There is no doubt that the King and his men sacrificed themselves on behalf of their countryman and to die in battle as they had been trained all their lives to do.

The Clash of the Titans


I have seen Clash of the Titans, I am convinced in theatre but I cannot find my review at the time. In ancient Times the Gods led by Zeus divided up the world/universe with Zeus controlling the land and sky Poseidon the sea and Hades the underworld. Hades was tricked by Zeus which eh resents at what appeared to him to be banishment and a lack of power.

Zeus was responsible for the creation of human beings whose prayers sustained him in strength and power but where the human felt they were not getting a good deal from their subservience.

Pete Potlewathwaite plats a fisherman who finds a floating coffin in which here id a live child but whose mother is dead. He brings up the child as his own and a s art of his family when he marries and heroes a child/children of the marriage.

When on a fishing expedition and admiring the great status of Zeus they are horrified to see soldiers from the city of Argos bring the statue down which falls into the sea. This rouses the wrath of Hades who appears in the form of a being reminiscent of supernatural creature in the series The Island but who then sends a bolt in the direction of the fishing boat which destroys the family leaving the son free. The son Perseus is captured by soldiers from Argos who take him to the court when the wife of the King in particular is in great defiance setting herself and her daughter above the Gods,

Hades has approached the other Gods on Mount Olympus to plead that the rebellion of the human cannot be allowed to go unchecked and Zeus in part from guilt at the earlier actions causing his brother to be left in the Underworld allows him to put humans in their place his way. The immediate consequence of this is his appearance at the Argos Court where he first eliminates the guards leaving only Zeus unscathed and then turns the Queen into an old woman/skeleton. He then poses a chose to the King of surrendering his daughter to the Kraken a sea based giant monster controlled if not spawned by Haddes, if the total population is not be obliterated.

Perseus initially does not accept that he is anything other than human but when there it appears established that he is the son of Zeus and that he and his mother was cast adrift in the ocean. He makes it plain that he wants to be regarded and to act as a human and that he is hostile to the Gods in general because of what happened to his adopted family. Having said this he is assisted Lo a beautiful young woman condemned to being ageless as gift from Zeus for refusing his advances,

At one point she delivers a special sword and at another she is responsible for providing him with Pegasus the flying horse. He also has a meeting with his father who begs him to up a position on Mount Olympus with him after having rejected him but when his son says he wishes to continue as he is; he does accept a gold coin, the fare for Charon, the Ferryman of the Underworld.

He also attempts to prevent the sacrifice of Andromeda, the daughter of the King by visiting the three women who function with one hand held eye, the Stgyian witches and he also then goes on a quest to encounter the gorgon Medusa. On his way he and soldiers from Argus encounter Calibos the form King whose wife was taken by Zeus and who cast the woman and child adrift. He has been given powers by Haddes to help his vengeance on Perseus and when they fight and his arm is severed it is turned into the fist of several giant scorpions. Just when the party appears out numbered by these creatures a race, the Djinn arrives who are able to control the beasts and then use them as a means of transport,

He then uses the coin from his father to enter the Underworld and encounter Medusa who after fighting he cuts of her head. Meanwhile back in Argos the mob have yield to incitement to surrender up Andromeda who is attached to a sacrificial structure for the Kraken. She is saved by Perseus with the help of Pegasus and the use of Gorgon head to send Haddes back to the Underworld.

Andromeda presses Perseus to stay and be king but he says she will make great Queen. Zeus also appears and expresses the hope that his son is now ready to join him on Olympus but Perseus says he is content in human form. Previously Lo has given her life to enable Perseus to gain the head of the Medusa and free Andromeda and as a reward for returning Haddes to the Underworld and returning the world to the previous harmony Zeus brings back Lo so that his son has a companion and the two fly away on Pegasus.

The film was original made for Theatre is conventional 2 D. It was then remade in 3D with the consequence it provides the internal dimensional view without the gimmicks of things flying in and out of the screen in d a distracting way. This also provided an alternative ending in which Perseus develops a relationship with Andromeda which is brought to life with rescuing her from a certain and horrible death. He says he will return but first flies to Mount Olympus to advise his father that he does not wish to be a god before flying off, we presume back to Andromeda. Lo has remained dead something which she had intimated she longed for having lived for so long and seen all her contemporaries and love ones dies, an experience which Perseus could empathise through the loss of his family.

The Clash of the Titans

I was up after five but it is now 6.30 am and I am just about to get going again after insisting on reaching the latest target on game of patience when I should sell be attending other matters. I have risen early in preparations for rising at a similar time on the morrow for the latest Travel Lodge special offers. I will shortly commence to write about five films seen recently on TV all of which I have seen in theatre or previously on TV but for a variety of reasons were selected to view again but they were not anticipated to have challenged mentally or emotionally but would mark time for a battery recharge or I was too tired to concentrate on anything else. Laziness is a curse of old age couple with the lack of physical staying power.

Last night the temperature was scheduled to have reached the lowest on record here in the North East in areas where snow has already fallen and settled. It was bitterly cold when I went out early evening for milk, a stock on sprats and some lettuce and bought a small pack of cherries for £1 and then undid the holding line on the weight with some small bars of nutty chocolate and as with last years this is the time, when Winter is at its sharpest and the slippery slide began followed by tempting additions as I commenced to watch cricket in what proved to be one of the best sunny and warm periods of the year in early April. I will get a hot drink and watch news about the weather at 7am while I commence the writing of the five films in the order that takes my fancy. It was cold down to -12 not a record but tonight is scheduled to be even colder

Thinking and writing about Family History and World War II time over the past week makes it appropriate to begin with a Sherlock Holmes, the first to be set outside of Victorian Baker Street and no I do not mean the recent incarnations, but Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror 1942 when in the midst of World War II the UK was at its lowest point, a General Winter of discontent and there icy winds from the artic East blew hard over Europe.

There were Nazi sympathisers in place throughout the UK to take over the running of the country once the planned invasion was successful. It was generally believed that had the invasions taken place before the second front against Russia had commenced then it would have been touch and go that the resources then available to us. The enemy would have been difficult to have withstood. There was also the voice of Lord Haw Haw, the name for the English speaking German propagandists who broadcast to the UK and Empire from 1939 to 1945 although the most regular and prominent was William Joyce a senior member of the British Union of Fascists who was captured and hanged. There was also Tokyo Rose who performed same role in the Far East and Pacific.

In the film there are a number of broadcasts which describe acts of Terror and sabotage shortly before they occur. Holmes is brought in by Members of a kind of coordinating and managing War Council to try and stop the horrors. One of Holmes contacts is murdered but before he dies he mentions the word “Christopher“. Holmes Basil Rathbone and Watson Nigel Bruce go to Limehouse to see the wife of the murdered helper where they are challenged by working class locals who resent the intrusion of someone one like Holmes with undertones of the uneducated working man who had espoused Fascism in the East End before the War against the rational middle class although there was just as strong support within the middle and upper classes and it is nom secret that the British press still reflects a right wing bread and circus fascism barely veneered in its editorials, enthusiasm for page three girls and dangerous hypocritical morality. The bastards are still at it.

Holmes appeals to the patriotism often the device of unscrupulous politicians in inappropriate circumstances but here he was calling to wider audience of cinema goers of the day to respond to the national emergency and make whatever individual contribution was within their means. The national lack individuals of the necessary calibre at the present time in a situation where the general education, understanding and communications systems are such to render the average politician in effective outside of Westminster. In this instance the catalyst for participation is not the outsider Holmes but Kitty, the local wife of the Murdered man who rallies the majority from hostility and apathy into action.

Through the help of these supporters and Kitty “Christopher” is tracked down as an ancient no longer used dock to the Thames but Homes Watson and head of nationals security appears to be captured by a leading British Nazi and one of henchmen but in fact Homes has prepared for this and the table are turned with the help of the locals. However using Kitty posing as thief she ingratiates herself into the home of the man. Meade who had temporarily captured Holmes and allowed to escape to try and find out information which will lead to the identification and capture of the individual inside the Council who is the traitor and also the location of where the German invasion is to take place.

The location is communicated and under direct orders from Downing Street the hostile resentful and sceptical Council members accompany Holmes to a location on the South Coast where the Meade, the would be British Nazi Party leader has assembled his other associates all in uniforms ready to take command of supporters in various parts of the UK once the invasion force lands.

It is at this point that the inside man is revealed as a leading Member of the Council who is unmasked as an impostor who replaced the original individual 24 years before. He had been in charge of defence movements and had arranged for the force to be deployed north to await the invasion force. However his instructions have not been put into effect arising from the direct communication between Holmes and Downing Street. The film portrays British planes returning from successfully attacking the German invasion fleet and aircraft and the conspirators arrested. Unfortunate Kitty is shot and killed by Meade who is himself gunned down by troops.

Earlier Homes had worked out that the broadcasts were being pre-recorded in the UK and then flown to Germany with the intelligence information for the next terrorist activity. The recoding was then played as a Live Broadcast from within Germany just before the terrorist attack took place. On intelligence that he life of another member of the Council was under threat Holmes goes to the home of a Council Member deep in the countryside who for some extra ordinary reason then goes out on an air raid warning job although there appears to be no one else about

For him to assist should circumstances dictate. Holmes approaches him as Meade who is also in thee area is making his way to an aircraft which is landing nearby. Holmes had worked out that shortly before each broadcast and horror attacking there had been raid of a few planes which had attracted the attention of the RAF. He had surmised this was a distraction for a separate plane to fly to the prearranged destination, land to collect the latest intelligence on target with the broadcast. In this instance the Council member feigns surprise and shoots towards Meade and the Plane which immediate takes off and Meade disappears into the gloom. The film concludes there is an East Wind coming Watson. Such a wind never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter. But its Gods own wind none the less and a greener, better, stronger land will be in the sunshine when the wind is cleared. Amen to that.
Painting the enemy as Devils is common but in the Dennis Wheatley novel based To the Devil a Daughter, the devil is a reality. I saw the film in theatre as well as on TV in the past and the all star cast brings a credible dimension in the days when horror suspense movies relied on audience imagination more than CGI creation of fantasy.

The film also relies on the audience accepting that it is possible for a fanatical former priest to establish an order of nuns who worship the devil adorned by inverted crosses. The story begins with Richard Widmark an established author attending an exhibition with his agent played by Honor Blackman and her lover Anthony Valentine Widmark is approached by Denholme Elliot to meet his daughter who is arriving from Germany for her once a year birthday with her father. The man explains to Widmark knowing of interest in the occult that the assignment is to look after the girl at his London riverside home until collected by father because of an occult threat. With remarkable insight Blackman is fearful and urges her client and friend not to become involved.

The background is that nearly eighteen years before, the girl played by 15 year old Natasha Kinski is born by a “natural” Caesarean to a mother willingly participating who understandable dies and the girl is then baptised in the blood of the mother. She is then raised by Christopher Lee as the devil worshipping priest and his consort within the nunnery until adolescence and then in a ceremony she is placed on an alter and stimulates sexual intercourse with a statue of the devil while Lee has actual intercourse n behalf of the devil with his consort. The woman gives birth by a similar method to that of the girl, a few days before her eighteen birthday and the most important night of the occupy year. The woman gives birth to a grotesque creature of the devil. The intention is that at 18 the girl will be baptised again in the blood of the creature and become the devil on earth enabling a new generation to be switched on although how she will do this is unclear.

Her father, played by Elliot is a drunk weakling who when he discovers what is happened is horrified but is visited by the spirit of his wife who warns that if he betrays her and the destiny of her daughter he will perish in a ball of fire and presents him with a an artefact as symbol of the pact of secrecy and obedience he has entered into. Lee takes charge of the “pact” which secreted in the altar of a church used by the cult. There is a scene of Elliot having sex with a young woman at the ceremony of his daughter and the conception of devil suggesting that part of the pact was to enjoy the experience of the young woman at their regular ceremonies. As the eighteenth birthday approaches he recants and hires Widmark to thwart the plan. However Widmark and Elliot underestimate the powerful force with Lee is able to generate.

At his home the girl appears to experience the horror of he birth of the devil at night and it is evident that she has memories of other situations in which she has participated in a trance like condition. First Lee sends a powerful auto suggestion via the phone, he holds a rope which turns into snake on the hand of Elliot in order to reveal where the girl is located. He is then able to send a message to girl to leave the home where she is being looked after by Blackman who stabs the woman to death in the head in order to leave the home and be picked up by an agent of Lee.

Widmark after being threatened over the phone by Lee goes to see a Bishop friend to gain access to ancient work on the occult held in the church library after reading up on the subject in his own references library. Here he reads the pages which are recorded a being read by the priests many years before but where the Library has a record as require by the church of all those whom read otherwise banned books. From this he understands what is happening only too late to save his friend and Valentine is understandably devastated and horrified with Widmark for allowing the situation to develop this way together with his own guilt for getting involved when Blackman had repeatedly warned against doing so,

Valentine insists on accompanying Widmark when they visit Elliot to find him seated in a protected circle against the power of the devil and he refuses to advise on the location of his daughter until they have retrieved the pact, They go in search of he church and first find it has moved with Frances de la Tour as a Salvation Army Major who has taken over the church, They find the church as advised by Elliot and here Valentine is mistaken by Lee for Elliot and is consumed by fire. Widmark takes the pact artefact to Elliot who realising it is broken reveals the location of the ceremony at an ancient church site.

Here Lee has created a circle with the blood of the woman who gave birth to the girl who eh has placed on an altar in the middle. Oddly the act is performed on his won without the entourage. He warns and also attempted to bribe Widmark from interfering. It is at this point that the film had its controversial moment in which the girl said to be eighteen years is played by the 15 year old Kinsky, appears full frontal naked as a potential gift to Widmark if he allows the ceremony to go ahead. Widmark hold, a stone with the protected blood to enter the circle which he then throw at the end of Lee to give him time to pick up the clothed girl from the altar outside the circle. The film ends ambiguously because as he leaves the circle Lee disappears and the girl with blood on brow looks at him in way which suggests he may have been too late.

Kinsky the daughter of German Actor Klaus Kinsky who she did not see from the age of ten had been spent her adolescence in a German Commune in the early 70’s and afterwards spoke of being exploited when she was too young to appreciate the long term implications of her appearance in the film. One wonders what her mother was up to.

Wheatley was one of the prolific writers of his day. He showed no aptitude for school or creative work as a child and young man joined the Merchant Navy. He served in the army in the First World War and experiences a chlorine attack at Paschendale and then saw service at Ypres and in France. After the war he joined the family wine merchant business and went into a depression when the business commenced to fail, remarried and commenced to write.

It was in the second World War that he held a important role for the Government coordinating strategic deception and cover plans including how to cope with the anticipated invasion which he covers in his work Stranger than Fiction. He presented a paper to the War Cabinet in Total War. He wrote over 80 fiction and non fiction works which books about the cult contained in a number of the series for example the Molly Fountain Mini series included the Satanist in addition to the Devil a Daughter. The Devil Rides out was part of the Duke of De Richleau series. And part if he Gregory Sullust series included they used Dark Forces and the Witch of the South Seas. The Irish Witch part of The Roger Brook Series. There were three fiction works on the occult on their own and a science fiction series. Six books in total were made into feature films He died in 1977 aged 80.

I have seen Clash of the Titans, I am convinced in theatre but I cannot find my review at the time. In ancient Times the Gods led by Zeus divided up the world/universe with Zeus controlling the land and sky Poseidon the sea and Hades the underworld. Hades was tricked by Zeus which eh resents at what appeared to him to be banishment and a lack of power.

Zeus was responsible for the creation of human beings whose prayers sustained him in strength and power but where the human felt they were not getting a good deal from their subservience.

Pete Potlewathwaite plats a fisherman who finds a floating coffin in which here id a live child but whose mother is dead. He brings up the child as his own and a s art of his family when he marries and heroes a child/children of the marriage.

When on a fishing expedition and admiring the great status of Zeus they are horrified to see soldiers from the city of Argos bring the statue down which falls into the sea. This rouses the wrath of Hades who appears in the form of a being reminiscent of supernatural creature in the series The Island but who then sends a bolt in the direction of the fishing boat which destroys the family leaving the son free. The son Perseus is captured by soldiers from Argos who take him to the court when the wife of the King in particular is in great defiance setting herself and her daughter above the Gods,

Hades has approached the other Gods on Mount Olympus to plead that the rebellion of the human cannot be allowed to go unchecked and Zeus in part from guilt at the earlier actions causing his brother to be left in the Underworld allows him to put humans in their place his way. The immediate consequence of this is his appearance at the Argos Court where he first eliminates the guards leaving only Zeus unscathed and then turns the Queen into an old woman/skeleton. He then poses a chose to the King of surrendering his daughter to the Kraken a sea based giant monster controlled if not spawned by Haddes, if the total population is not be obliterated.

Perseus initially does not accept that he is anything other than human but when there it appears established that he is the son of Zeus and that he and his mother was cast adrift in the ocean. He makes it plain that he wants to be regarded and to act as a human and that he is hostile to the Gods in general because of what happened to his adopted family. Having said this he is assisted Lo a beautiful young woman condemned to being ageless as gift from Zeus for refusing his advances,

At one point she delivers a special sword and at another she is responsible for providing him with Pegasus the flying horse. He also has a meeting with his father who begs him to up a position on Mount Olympus with him after having rejected him but when his son says he wishes to continue as he is; he does accept a gold coin, the fare for Charon, the Ferryman of the Underworld.

He also attempts to prevent the sacrifice of Andromeda, the daughter of the King by visiting the three women who function with one hand held eye, the Stgyian witches and he also then goes on a quest to encounter the gorgon Medusa. On his way he and soldiers from Argus encounter Calibos the form King whose wife was taken by Zeus and who cast the woman and child adrift. He has been given powers by Haddes to help his vengeance on Perseus and when they fight and his arm is severed it is turned into the fist of several giant scorpions. Just when the party appears out numbered by these creatures a race, the Djinn arrives who are able to control the beasts and then use them as a means of transport,

He then uses the coin from his father to enter the Underworld and encounter Medusa who after fighting he cuts of her head. Meanwhile back in Argos the mob have yield to incitement to surrender up Andromeda who is attached to a sacrificial structure for the Kraken. She is saved by Perseus with the help of Pegasus and the use of Gorgon head to send Haddes back to the Underworld.

Andromeda presses Perseus to stay and be king but he says she will make great Queen. Zeus also appears and expresses the hope that his son is now ready to join him on Olympus but Perseus says he is content in human form. Previously Lo has given her life to enable Perseus to gain the head of the Medusa and free Andromeda and as a reward for returning Haddes to the Underworld and returning the world to the previous harmony Zeus brings back Lo so that his son has a companion and the two fly away on Pegasus.

The film was original made for Theatre is conventional 2 D. It was then remade in 3D with the consequence it provides the internal dimensional view without the gimmicks of things flying in and out of the screen in d a distracting way. This also provided an alternative ending in which Perseus develops a relationship with Andromeda which is brought to life with rescuing her from a certain and horrible death. He says he will return but first flies to Mount Olympus to advise his father that he does not wish to be a god before flying off, we presume back to Andromeda. Lo has remained dead something which she had intimated she longed for having lived for so long and seen all her contemporaries and love ones dies, an experience which Perseus could empathise through the loss of his family.